European Mobile Gaming Gets Social: Rise in Smartphone Adoption Drives Increase in Mobile Gaming and Social Play
UK is the Largest EU5 Market with 14.2 Million Smartphone Gamers
LONDON, UK, 26 April 2012 - Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of mobile gaming behaviour across the five leading European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) using the Comscore MobiLens service. The study showed that 42 percent of smartphone users in EU5 reported playing a game on their device in February 2012, displaying an increase of 55 percent over the past year. More than half of the UK smartphone audience (52.4 percent) reported playing a game on their device, proving to be the largest mobile gaming market in the EU5.
“The rise in mobile gaming is being propelled by the rapid adoption of smartphones and the vast ecosystems of game apps they provide,” said Hesham Al-Jehani, Comscore Europe product manager for Mobile. “As mobile games evolve from simple pre-loaded games to highly challenging and visually appealing games, their entertainment value has increased substantially. But another important – and perhaps less often reported – driver of mobile gaming is that many can be played without accessing the internet on people’s phones. This means that gaming is an easy way to fill idle time on the underground or in other locations where internet access is spotty.”
Nearly Half of EU5 Smartphone Users are Gamers
In February 2012, the number of EU5 smartphone users playing games at least once a month increased 55 percent over the past year to 46.4 million smartphone users (representing 42 percent of the EU5 audience). The UK proved to be the largest market for mobile gaming with 14.2 million smartphone users playing games on their devices during the month, representing 52 percent of the smartphone audience. British smartphone users also ranked first in terms of gaming penetration across daily and weekly gaming usage.
Frequency of Smartphone Users Playing Games on their Devices | ||||||
Penetration (%) of Smartphone Users Playing Games | ||||||
EU5 | France | Germany | Italy | Spain | UK | |
Almost every day | 11.5% | 7.4% | 11.8% | 10.0% | 10.4% | 16.4% |
At least once each week | 14.3% | 9.7% | 14.2% | 13.8% | 13.5% | 18.8% |
Once to three times throughout the month | 15.9% | 10.1% | 16.2% | 17.9% | 17.8% | 17.2% |
Ever in month | 41.7% | 27.2% | 42.1% | 41.8% | 41.6% | 52.4% |
Social Gaming on the up Amongst Europeans
In February 2012, 6.1 million EU5 smartphone gamers logged into a social game on their devices (up 42 percent in the past six months), representing 13.2 percent of smartphone gamers overall. The Italian smartphone gaming audience ranked first in terms of the penetration at 15.5 percent, followed by the UK (14.2 percent) and France (13.1 percent). Spanish smartphone users were most likely to play games with other people at 11.0 percent, followed by Italy at 9.4 percent.
Smartphone Social Gaming Activities* | ||||||
| Penetration (%) of Smartphone Gamers | |||||
EU5 | France | Germany | Italy | Spain | UK | |
Logged in via Email or Facebook | 13.2% | 13.1% | 11.7% | 15.5% | 10.8% | 14.2% |
Played with other people | 9.1% | 8.6% | 7.5% | 9.4% | 11.0% | 9.1% |
Invited friend to play | 6.7% | 5.6% | 7.3% | 8.2% | 7.3% | 5.4% |
Shared score on leaderboard | 7.6% | 9.9% | 9.3% | 9.0% | 7.0% | 5.1% |
Used chat | 3.0% | 2.8% | 2.5% | 3.2% | 3.9% | 2.7% |
Sent/received gift | 2.2% | 1.9% | 2.5% | 2.7% | 2.1% | 1.7% |
*A social gameallows mobile users to connect, compete and socialise with friends and other players on their device.
February 2012 EU5 Mobile Benchmark Data
The table below shows Comscore’s February 2012 mobile benchmark data, including a review of mobile consumption behaviour and device penetration for the five European countries under measurement. These benchmarks are published by Comscore to provide the most up-to-date snapshot of the mobile industry. Further information on these benchmarks, and other data included above, can be provided upon request.
Mobile Benchmark Data for the European Market | ||||||
| Penetration (%) of Mobile Subscribers | |||||
EU5 | France | Germany | Italy | Spain | UK | |
Used Smartphone | 46.9% | 43.3% | 40.1% | 45.4% | 53.9% | 54.7% |
Used Application (excl. pre-installed) | 40.8% | 36.6% | 36.2% | 35.4% | 45.8% | 52.0% |
Used browser | 40.5% | 39.0% | 33.8% | 35.5% | 43.7% | 52.6% |
Played games | 29.1% | 17.4% | 27.0% | 32.7% | 32.3% | 37.0% |
Sent text message | 84.3% | 86.9% | 80.0% | 81.5% | 80.9% | 92.1% |
Listened to music | 28.1% | 24.7% | 27.8% | 25.5% | 36.5% | 28.3% |
Accessed Social Networking Site or Blog | 27.6% | 24.3% | 21.3% | 24.3% | 30.3% | 39.3% |
About MobiLens
MobiLens data is derived from an intelligent online survey of a nationally representative sample of mobile subscribers age 13 and above. Data on mobile phone usage refers to a respondent’s primary mobile phone and does not include data related to a respondent’s secondary device.
About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo