Smartphones Driving Strong Growth in Mobile Gaming

In the previous year, the iPhone and BlackBerry Curve have replaced the Motorola RAZR and low-end flip phones as the most popular mobile gaming platforms.

"The rapid growth in smartphone adoption in the United States has provided a boost for mobile gaming, as 34% of those downloading a game in November did so using a smartphone," said Mark Donovan, a senior analyst for the market-research firm comScore, Inc. 

The number of smartphone owners downloading a game nearly tripled, while dipping 14% among owners of feature phones. iPhone owners made up 14% of all mobile game downloaders in November 2008, with 32.4% of all iPhone users reporting they downloaded a game in the month. 

When combining results for smartphones and featurephones, comScore reports that the total number of mobile game downloaders grew 17% from November 2007 to November 2008.

"Over the past year, we have seen mobile gaming expand into a broadening demographic, with strongest growth among teens, who previously eschewed their mobile device in favor of handheld gaming devices, and those 35 and older," said Donovan.

Still, it's a relatively niche activity. While 8.5 million people downloaded a game to their mobile device in November, that's only 3.8% of mobile phone subscribers.

via comScore