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After a pandemic-driven surge, mobile gaming is coming back down to earth, according to mobile analytics and measurement company AppsFlyer, which last week released its State of Gaming App Marketing report.
A key finding: Gaming advertisers spent $26.7 billion on app install ads prompting users to download their mobile games in 2022, according to the report, which pulled data from 38 billion installs across more than 18,000 apps. That spend capped a “golden age of gaming” that ran through 2021 and into 2022 but has since begun to slow down, Shani Rosenfelder, director of market insights at AppsFlyer, said in a press release. The US represented nearly half of that spend at $12.2 billion.
In 2022, overall Android gaming app installs grew 8% year over year, while iOS gaming app installs dropped 5%, as Apple’s privacy changes have made it tougher for mobile advertisers to track user behavior.
- The difference is even starker when comparing gaming app installs in the US last year—19% growth for Android versus a loss of 1% for iOS.
Compare that to 2020, when Android gaming app installs jumped 60% year over year and iOS increased nearly 20%, because playing Subway Surfers is way easier than learning how to bake sourdough.
Ad spend: On iOS, the average cost per install increased 35% year over year in Q4 to $3.80. Meanwhile, the cost per install on Android has “steadily hovered” around $0.70 since Q3 of 2021, the report found.
Zoom out: It’s not just downloads that are slowing; consumers are also spending less on games. Earlier this year, mobile analytics firm Data.ai’s head of insights told CNBC that the “biggest hit” to app spending was happening within gaming. According to Data.ai’s State of Mobile report, mobile game spending dropped 5% last year.—RB