Tablet boom gives a boost to gaming
GAME revenues from tablets are expected to grow from last year’s $491m (£309.6m) to $3.1bn by 2016, said Juniper Research, as Apple announced it had sold three million new iPads since last week’s launch.
Report author Charlotte Miller said: “Tablet owners tend to have a larger disposable income… Higher user satisfaction with games and a bigger wallet mean that tablet games look to be highly lucrative.”
The mobile gaming market, thought to have generated $8.5bn last year, could be worth a whopping $18.3bn by 2016, the report said.
And Juniper estimates tablets will account for nearly a third of overall spend on mobile games in five years, while revenues from mobile games on phones will halve.
In-game purchases are also expected to grow, rising to $4.8bn in 2016 compared to $2.1bn in 2010.