Mobile devices spur social gaming growth
Driven by continuous growth in sales of smartphones, tablets and others mobile devices, the global market for social gaming is set to rise to $17.4 billion by 2019.
A study conducted by Research and Markets found that the sector was valued at $5.40 billion in 2012 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.1% during the forecast period from 2013 to 2019.
Individuals and console based game manufacturers and designers have started recognizing the potential and importance of social networking sites, which is, in turn, contributing to the growth of social games, the report said.
People have always been attracted to video games and these console based games come at prices that is not affordable by common man, the researchers said.
“Today’s generation spend their time on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace among others to socialize with family and friends.”
“During their time on the web, the users spend over 50% of their time on social games competing with friends and colleagues. Many of the game developers are now looking to tap the social media market and develop games for the social networking sites,” the report said.
On an average 200 million active users play games online and it expected to increase with each passing year.
With the increase in social network users the number of people likely to sign up for social games is expected to increase. The number of monthly active users in 2012 was approximately over 200 million and it expected to double by 2019, Research and Markets said.
To meet the demands of the users, organizations are designing games of different genre such as casino games, virtual villages, sport role playing games, social role playing games and ownership games among others. Casino and virtual village games have become popular among the gamers, the reported noted.
Research and Markets said that the ever increasing demand of the mobile devices has made the social game developers rework their strategies and they are now designing games that can be played on these devices.
“The growth in the internet subscribers has also contributed to the growth of the social game users. It is expected that in 2014 one third of internet users are likely to take to social gaming. Another factor resulting in the growth social gaming market is free cost of the games on the net,” the report said.
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