Research from comScore into mobile gaming behaviour across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom has shown that 42% of smartphone users across these ‘EU5’ countries claim to have played a game on their device in February 2012. That’s 46.4 million people; a 55% increase over the past year.
The largest proportion of mobile gaming users in the EU5 was in the UK, where 52.4% of smartphone users said they’d played a game on their handset.
Hesham Al-Jehani, comScore Europe product manager for Mobile, said “The rise in mobile gaming is being propelled by the rapid adoption of smartphones and the vast ecosystems of game apps they provide. 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.”
When it comes to ‘social’ gaming, 13.2% of EU5 smartphone gamers logged into a social game on their devices in February. Italy topped the chart with 15.5% penetration, followed by the UK at 14.2%.