Brits spent £170M on mobile games in 2009

Of 8 million mobile gamers in the UK, 48% pays for games.

London, 20^th January 2010 – Data released from the Mobile section of the UK National Gamers Survey Report conducted by TNS and Gamesindustry.com has revealed that 3.8 million people playing games on their mobile phones spent a total of £170 million pounds last year. 4,2 million Brits play but don’t pay. Only one third of the paying mobile gamers spent more than £5 pounds a month on average, illustrating the “long tail” of occasional buyers of mobile content. iPhone and O2 lead in getting mobile gamers to pay.

Who is playing and who is paying?

Genders are represented practically equal for non-paying as well as paying mobile gamers: 53% of mobile (paying) gamers is male, 47% female. The age group 20 to 34 accounts for 39% of mobile gamers and 60% of paying mobile gamers. Teens (13-19 years) make up only 18% of mobile gamers and 15% of the paying players. Two thirds of people spending money on mobile games has a full-time job and close to half of them is married, confirming the mainstream appeal and reach of mobile games. Mobile gamers are significantly more interested in sports, fashion and travel than the average Brit.

Which individual handset brands and operators monetize best?

The Apple iPhone is the most successful handset brand when it comes to converting mobile gamers to paying. Of their 700,000 UK mobile gamers, 85% pays for games. The leading operator is O₂ with a conversion ratio of 67% for their 2,400,000 mobile gamers. Market leaders in terms of number of mobile gamers, Nokia and Sony Ericsson have 38% paying players, identical to operator Vodafone. Three quarters of paying mobile gamers has a contract opposed to using prepaid cards. For all mobile gamers this is more equal: 57% on contract, 43% using prepaid.

What are mobile gamers preferences?

Only 14% of UK mobile gamers plays daily. This goes up to 18% for people who have paid for games. The majority of mobile gamers plays between 15 and 60 minutes on their mobile phone when they play. Popular games for the paying mobile gamers are puzzles, strategy, race and arcade games. Arcade games and puzzles are clearly most popular with non-paying gamers most often being the pre-installed games. 41% of all mobile gamers has played more than 3 different games in the last 6 months. 16% of paying mobile gamers, 600,000 people in absolute numbers, can be seen as the heavy users playing more than 25 different games in a 6 months period.

The UK National Gamers Survey Report is part of the 2009 Today’s Gamers International Survey (www.todaysgamers.com) and the latest in a series of identical nation-wide surveys conducted across European key areas and the US. Peter Warman from Gamesindustry.com said: “The iPhone does, by far, not have the number of users as other handset brands but is extremely good at monetizing the popularity of games on mobile phones. This has also clearly had its effect on the conversion to paying gamers of the large operators closely related to iPhone.”

The full UK National Gamers Survey Report and full datasets are available for €4,950, and an international comparative high-level report across all countries surveyed (US, UK, GER, FR, NL & BE) comprising 80 pages and 120 graphs is also available for €4,950. Contact peter@newzoo.com or visit www.todaysgamers.com.

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Note to editors

The 2009 Today’s Gamers International Survey (www.todaysgamers.com) is the latest in a series of identical nation-wide surveys conducted by TNS and Gamesindustry.com in the Netherlands, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the United States. Data for the 2009 edition was collected from a total of 13,000 respondents, selected to represent the nations demographic profile. The interviews were conducted online, therefore the results represent the population with internet access. Other topics in the survey include full breakdowns by demographic, general interest, buying intent, media consumption, local media channel preferences, motivation to play, payment methods, digital distribution, number of games played, game platform selection, most appreciated features, and betting/gambling participation.

Both the national and international comparative reports are currently available, as well as raw data for custom queries. A selection of the data is freely available and published on the global portal www.gamesindustry.com in the form of summary reports (English language) and thirteen individual graphs. For each individual country, these can be directly accessed via the website www.todaysgamers.com.  

Clienst include: Nintendo of Europe, RealGames/Zylom, EA, WarnerBros, GlobalCollect, Spil Games, Gala Networks, WildTangent and SFR.

Please state TNS/Gamesindustry.com as a source when distributing findings from this publication.

For press information, contact:

Lucy Kamall

PR Director

Character Communications Ltd.

Tel: 01376 537087

Email: lucy@charactercomms.com 

For further information and specific data requests:

Gamesindustry.com

Peter Warman

Co-founder

T: +31 (0)6 15855037

E: peter@newzoo.com

TNS NIPO

Caspar Hautvast

Research Consultant

T: +31 (0)20 522 5757

E: caspar.hautvast@tns-nipo.com