A survey conducted by Information Solutions Group and paid for by casual game publisher PopCap Games claims that one-third of adults in the United States and the United Kingdom identify themselves as "mobile phone gamers." The survey also found that among mobile phone gamers, the mobile phone is now the primary gaming device of choice, surpassing consoles and personal computers in less than two years. The survey also found that smartphone owners are the most avid consumers of mobile phone games. These and other purchase and consumption trends identified in the survey suggest growth in the mobile games sector that will continue for the foreseeable future.
Overall, more than half (52 percent) of the 2,425 survey respondents said they had played a game on a mobile phone at some time in the past; 73 percent of U.K. respondents said they had played a mobile phone game at least once, compared to 44 percent of U.S. residents surveyed. A portion of those U.K. respondents appear to have been one-time users. Around 33.6 percent of all adults in America and the United Kingdom have played a game on their mobile phone handset in the past month, qualifying them as "mobile phone gamers" for the purposes of the survey, and nearly a quarter (24.6 percent) have played in the past week, qualifying them as "avid mobile phone gamers." Around 83 percent of mobile phone gamers who own a smartphone said they'd played in the past week.
The full findings from the survey are available in this PDF.
The survey was conducted by Information Solutions Group exclusively for PopCap Games. The results are based on 2,425 online surveys completed by members of the online "ePanel"" site (Toluna) in the United States and United Kingdom between January 25 and January 31, 2011. To qualify for the survey respondents had to own a mobile phone.
