UK mobile gaming audience increased by 50% due to the pandemic

2020 wasn't a great year for a bountiful list of reasons - Covid-19 being the headline of course, but among the chaos, videogames have become more popular than ever. A recent report from Facebook showcased this, with an emphasis on mobile gaming, discovering that in the UK alone, mobile gaming audiences grew by 50% since March 2020.

The report does cover a variety of different countries, showing that the US grew by 28%, South Korea by 34%, and Germany by 25%, but the UK shows the largest growth, even if that number accounts for a smaller majority of people than say the US (the US had 28 million new gamers, whereas the UK had 8.6 million).

For the case of this study, as reported by gamesindustry.biz, the "new players were defined by the study as people who "didn't play mobile games before the peak of the pandemic, and currently play at least an hour a week."

Furthermore, the report does also look into spending habits across mobile gaming, finding that new players are more likely to buy than existing gamers are. The exact percentage reflecting this does differ between countries as well, but in the UK for example the stats are as follows: new players spend on average $16.62 a month, whereas existing players spend an average of $4.20 a month - which is a pretty stark difference.

Thanks, gamesindustry.biz.