The Mobile Gaming industry was one of the few industries positively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that the world is returning to normal, it is not quite good news for the mobile gaming industry. According to the numbers presented by SafeBettingSites.com, the mobile gaming industry suffered a 6.2% year-over-year fall in revenues during the first quarter of 2022.
$21.2B in revenues during the first quarter
According to the recent report on Mobile Gaming by Sensor Tower, the industry brought in $21.2B in revenues during the last quarter. As compared to Q1 2021, the revenues witnessed a 6.2% drop. Mobile games brought in $22.6B in revenues during the first quarter of 2021. This drop was the first ever year-on-year drop in revenues of the industry.
As evident from the above graph, the mobile gaming industry massively grew in 2020 and 2021, majorly due to the pandemic. In fact, the first quarter of 2021 was the biggest recorded in the history of the industry. Hence, the drop in numbers during the past quarter shouldn’t come as a surprise.
When compared to Q4 2021, there was a 2.8% drop in revenues in Q1 2022. This drop was also the second consecutive in quarter-over-quarter numbers. Hence, one can expect this downward trend to continue in the coming quarter.
App Store brought in 61.3% of revenues
A simple look at shares of both stores would make it clear that App Store brings in the majority of revenues in mobile gaming. During Q1 2022, mobile users spent a total of $13B on games in the App Store – which constitutes 61.35 of the overall revenue.
Furthermore, the drop in year-on-year revenues is majorly down to Google Play revenues. During Q1 2021, Google Play mobile gaming revenues stood at $9.4B. In the last quarter, Google Play revenues were $8.2B – indicating a year-on-year drop of 13%. In comparison, App Store revenues only dropped from $13.2B to $13B during this period – a decline of only 1.5%.
Google Play’s share in overall mobile gaming revenues was 41.6% in Q1 2021. During the past quarter, it had reduced to 38.7%.
Vyom Chaudhary, an editor at SafeBettingSites, commented: “These numbers are more damning for Google Play than App Store. However, a drop is to be expected in the post-pandemic world. Compared to 2019, the industry is still in a very healthy state.”
