New Report Explains Decrease in PC Gaming & Increase in Mobile Gaming

This week a report was released by a provider of market data for the digital games industry, SuperData Research. The report stated that fewer social casino players are enjoying apps like Double Down that offer a wide range of games in favor of single-genre apps. The reason is that more gamers prefer to play on their mobile phones and tablets rather than their personal computers.

In fact, the number of gamers who play on computers is only about 49% while those who use their mobile phones has risen to 85%. The number of players that play only on computers has fallen from 15 percent to 6 percent over the past year. However, multigenre apps like Double Down are best played on computers since the screens are much bigger.

This information from the report explains why the recent sale of their online gaming business Double Down Interactive, which was just sold, may have had perfect timing for International Game Technology. IGT recently sold Double Down for $825 million last month to a South Korea-based company. Double Down's revenue declined in 2016. Double Down allowed players to enjoy slots, video poker, blackjack, roulette, bingo and poker but with a steadily declining market, IGT embraced the sale.

Improvements in mobile phone technology over the past few years are making online video games, such as Candy Crush and Clash of Clans, more attractive compared with slots. But, as the market shows a decline, computer social gamers are still the most engaged and most profitable clients for casino app makers. The report indicated that the average PC gamer plays 69 minutes per session and spends nearly $80 per month, compared with 57 minutes and $40 for mobile gamers.

Further, the average computer gamer will spend $629 on a multigenre app and $556 on slots over a nine month period, before switching to new social casino games, according to SuperData. Mobile players get bored with games a bit faster, switching to new casino apps on average every 7.5 months. Over that time, the average player spends $250 on multi-genre and $324 on slot games. Multigenre games account for 31 percent of total social casino gaming revenue on PCs and 24 percent on mobile phones, according to SuperData.

This is not to say that there won't be issues to face with mobile social casino apps, which is indicative in the decline in monthly active users of mobile casino games from 158 million in 2014 to 84 million in 2017. The reason is likely that phones have gotten more advanced and can run more complex games with better graphics, which has attracted a lot of the casual social casino players that didn't spend money.