Drawing upon data from 12 countries, Facebook has revealed that the smartphone is now ahead of the computer as the premier gaming device – with 71% of gamers now going for this handheld option.
The emerging prominence of the smartphone for gaming has previously been made clear by the revelation, reported by newzoo and reiterated in Facebook’s new report on global mobile gaming trends, that 2016 will see mobile surpass the PC for revenues made from games.
Indeed, it is thought that, of US$99.6 billion in total revenues that gamers will generate globally this year, mobile gaming will be responsible for US$36.9 billion. As noted by VentureBeat, Facebook’s own freshly-published data adds that, on average, tablets are used by 34% of gamers, while 26% still favour consoles.
The pick-up-and-play appeal of smartphone games helps to explain their huge popularity – with PCs, tablets and consoles, handheld consoles aside, lacking quite the same level of accessibility.