There are over 1 billion smartphones and tablets used for gaming around the world; and Google’s android operating system continues to benefit the most from the growth.
Android makes up nearly 75 percent of the the smart-device gaming market, according to a report from intelligence firms App Annie and IDC. Between the fourth quarter of 2013 to the fourth quarter of 2014, Google’s mobile platform grew 5.2% while Apple’s smartphones and tablets lost 2.3% and all other mobile OSes lost 2.8 percent.
Global revenues for mobile gaming reached $25 billion in 2014, and iOS and Android — which each take 30 percent cuts from game sales and in-app purchases — pocketed a significant chunk of that cash.
Games make up around 30 percent of all downloads on iOS. The Google Play store, meanwhile, sees around 40 percent of its downloads from games; and 75 percent of all spending on the iOS App Store comes from games, and that was essentially flat from Q4 2013 to Q4 2014. For Google Play, that number is closer to 85 percent, and that is up incrementally from the fourth quarter of 2013.
