Mobile gaming is going from strength to strength, with a 30% increase in mobile game installs in the first quarter of 2016 compared with the previous quarter.
Android remained the leading platform, accounting for 81% of mobile game installs around the world while iOS represented 17%, according to the ‘Games by the Numbers’ report from games development platform company Unity Technologies.
Almost three quarters (73%) of all Android game installs were on the Kitkat (4.4) and Lollipop (5.0 and 5.1) releases of the operating system. On the iOS platform, 72% of installs were on devices running iOS 9.0 (released September 2015) or later, and 91% were on devices running 8.0 (released at September 2014) or later.
The two most popular mobile device manufacturers were Apple and Samsung, and the iPhone models 6 and 5s were the most popular game devices with a combined 28% of installs on iOS.
Overall, China was the leading market during the quarter, representing 31% of all game installations.
The figures are based on the performance of games made using Unity technology, covering more than 220,000 games which generated 4.2 billion installs across 1.7 billion unique devices globally during the first three months of 2016.
Commenting on the report, John Cheng, general manager of Unity Analytics, said: “It’s exciting to see the mobile games market continue to grow and thrive around the world, which translates into great opportunities for developers to bring their visions to life.”
The in-depth information provided by Unity in the report can help mobile developers prioritise and give them an edge as they make marketing and product decisions, Cheng added.
