Mobile Gaming App Usage Growing Beyond 'Pandemic Phase': EMarketer

U.S. gamers spent 30 seconds more a day on average engaged on mobile apps in 2021 than in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, defying eMarketer expectations that time spent on gaming apps would decline after 2020, said the research firm Tuesday. App-based gaming will be about 13% of all U.S. app time this year and remain above 12% for the foreseeable future, it said. Higher engagement is being driven by increased overall time spent with smartphones and by an uptick in gaming app adoption by older smartphone users. Among Generation Z users, Roblox and Discord are driving gaming platform growth; games including Pokemon Go and Candy Crush are popular across generations, it said. EMarketer predicts a “slow, but steady” increase for mobile gaming apps in years ahead, beyond “just a pandemic phase.”