The pandemic boosts game consumption on smartphones
The isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant the search for new forms of entertainment, with streaming services like Netflix shooting, but also video games for smartphones.
In the App Store, growth was 35% in the first quarter of 2020, compared to the same period last year, for 3 billion downloads; while on Google Play, the growth was 38%, with 10.3 billion installations. That is, an absolute record for both application stores.
The figures for the second quarter of 2020 are not slowing down. If 5.1 billion downloads were made in March in both stores, a 24% increase from month to month, there is a more evident growth in April, which registered 5.5 billion combined, an increase of 8% compared to the previous year. last month. It remains to be seen whether the numbers remain unchanged or whether there will be a “normalization” of the values.
Statistics show that India was the country with the highest growth, with 966 million downloads in April alone, a growth of 29% compared to March and 92% when compared to January. This is followed by the United States with 527 million downloads and China, which peaked in February during isolation, with 284.3 million installations. With the return to normal, Chinese market numbers dropped 33%, with 190.7 million downloads registered in April.
As for the games that earned the most, PUBG Mobile and Honor of Kings stand out, two titles from the Chinese Tencent catalog, with revenues of 225.2 million and 156 million dollars. The overall podium is closed by Roblox, which continues to remain popular worldwide, with $ 96 million in revenue, a growth of 37.4% over the previous month.
The game with the most downloads in the analyzed period is called Save the Girl, which obtained 50.2 million downloads. The podium also includes Gardenscapes with 37.7 million downloads and the third PUBG Mobile.
