While tough Q4s and growing economic concerns battered consumer products in 2022, the mobile gaming industry is proving to be a resilient alternative. 

LA-based game engine developer Unity unveiled its annual industry report this week, showing the number of daily mobile gamers in 2022 grew by 8% from 2021. 

While previously this data might have been of limited interest to those in the kids space, evidence suggests it should be the contrary. On Monday, UK research firm Childwise released new data showing 70% of kids in the UK ages 5-18 now own their own phone, bolstering previous insights from Dubit showing a similar trend. 

For its part, Unity’s data focuses not on end users but the development community that uses its proprietary engine. It collected stats from more than 230,000 developers globally, along with ad data from 423,000 studios on other gaming platforms. 

It found that larger studios are increasingly turning to mobile to get games in-market faster, cheaper and to more people. This has spurred user growth, but at the cost of revenue, as the survey found paying users down 2%. In turn, 70% of game studios are rethinking traditional revenue models. 

Previously, subscriptions and upfront app purchases are fading away as gamers turn to games with in-app purchases or in-app advertisements. That list includes popular titles like Roblox, Fortnite, and Second Dinner’s mobile card game Marvel Snap. 

Action, adventure, and role-playing titles are the most popular genres used by the companies surveyed and devs also reported a trend toward greater engagement with users to lengthen a game’s lifespan. Tactics used to enhance gamer love include adding achievements/challenges (68%), updating the game regularly (67%) and creating multiplayer leaderboards (48%).

Photo by Onur Binay on Unsplash