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Facebook Survey Says Close To Half Mobile Gamers Are Women

For the first time this year, mobile gaming will overtake PC gaming with $36.9 billion in revenues.
Young woman playing videogames with smartphone at home
Westend61
Young woman playing videogames with smartphone at home

Pokemon Go's phenomenal success is the latest proof that these are boom times for the mobile gaming industry. After all, the game has been downloaded more than the Tinder dating app and people are spending more time playing it than they are on Snapchat. A new Facebook survey also points to mobile gaming's zooming popularity.

The survey was conducted in 12 countries including India and it throws up a number of interesting facts, figures, and trends about gaming. The report concludes that the mobile gaming industry will be worth $36.9 billion in 2016. That would make it bigger than PC gaming in terms of revenue for the first time. The report estimates that the total revenue generated by gaming in 2016 will be $99.6 billion.

Pinsir, a Pokemon, is found by a group of Pokemon Go players,
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pinsir, a Pokemon, is found by a group of Pokemon Go players,

The growing popularity of the mobile games such as Candy Crush, Clash of the Clans, Flappy Bird, Angry Birds, and Pokemon GO means that users are spending a good amount of time and money playing games on handheld devices.

A notable fact that emerges from the survey is that the number of women gamers on mobile devices is almost the same as men gamers. While women are more inclined to play puzzle games such as Monument Valley or Candy Crush, men spend more time on strategy-based games such as the Clash of the Clans.

Facebook

Meanwhile, another recent study suggests that the notion of men being better gamers than the women is just a myth.

According to the Facebook survey, many people in India play mobile games while travelling in trains or buses. They also play while waiting for the train or for a meeting to begin.

The survey also suggests that the mobile gaming is more popular in developing countries such as India, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, and Turkey. One reason behind this could be the fact that India is now the second biggest market for smartphones globally. Another report suggests that India is now the second-largest user of the Internet.

Facebook

The survey indicates that the smartphone is the gaming device of choice for 71 percent of the respondents, while the console still remains a choice for 26 percent of those surveyed. The console's lingering hold is significant, considering that its price as well as the price of the games bought for it add up to being considerably more than the cost of gaming on smartphones.

Mobile gamers also tend to be bigger spenders if the games are community based. They spend more money to level up or to beat a friend with upgrades. Sometimes they play simply to make connections with others.

Also, an astonishing 43 percent of mobile gamers are parents. They tend to play games as a way to spend family time together. These trends clearly suggest that in the coming days, we will see more immersive games on mobile phones based on the augmented reality as well as virtual reality.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.