A new report from mobile analytics firm Flurry takes a look at the demographics of the mobile social gaming audience as compared with traditional console gamers – that is, those who use TV-connected gaming consoles like the Xbox 360, PlayStation and Wii. According to the firm (and other data pulled from the Electronic Software Association), the mobile social gaming audience tends to be younger, more female and has better access to disposable income than traditional gamers.
In the charts provided, Flurry shows how the age and gender demographics are divvied up between the various platforms. On mobile phones, the average gamer age is 28, compared with 34 on consoles. Mobile gamers are also more heavily female (53%) than traditional gamers (only 40% female).
More importantly (well, to game publishers at least), is the fact that there’s a greater density in the 18-49 demographic on mobile than on traditional platforms. That means more disposable income. Says Flurry: “iOS and Android devices are attracting users during their earning years versus, in particular their teenage years, where they likely cannot afford more expensive mobile devices.”
Remarkably, the audience for mobile gaming is also very, very large – larger, in fact, than the worldwide install base of console game leaders (Wii, Xbox, PlayStation) combined. That traditional console audience is estimated at 180 million. Mobile gaming is even larger than portable gaming (Nintendo DS and Sony PSP), estimated at 200 million. And it’s larger than primetime TV watching, too, as has been reported previously – as any given primetime TV show can top just 20 million viewers.
So how large is it? Flurry says it alone detects 250 million unique devices with over 750,000 coming online daily. It has seen over 300 million user sessions across all its games and apps, 37% of which are from games alone. But Flurry is only seeing a portion of the overall market – it only sees those devices where apps using Flurry’s services are running. But it extrapolated from a sample of its users (around 60,000+ users) who self-reported age, gender and location to take a look at audience demographics in more detail – specifically, U.S. mobile gamer demographics.
You can see those findings in the charts below.
