Although consumer spending in gaming will drop a further 3% in 2023 to USD 107.5 billion, mobile gaming revenue is projected to increase by 4% year-over-year to USD 111.4 billion in 2024, according to a new market analyst firm Data.ai report 5 Mobile App Predictions for 2024.
This expansion was attributed to a projected increase of popularity among several genres, including RPGs, match-three titles, and party games, with RPG and match-three games contributing USD 1 to every USD 5. In this sense, the market analyst firm predicted that the U.S. will account for 40% of year-over-year growth in the mobile market. Consumer spending in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, and the UK are also announced to elevate.
This bodes well for the industry on the whole as gaming resumes a more moderate development trajectory from pre-COVID-19 accelerating spending levels.
TIKTOK, AI AND SOCIAL PLATFORMS
Outside of games, the report anticipated that social media platform TikTok will become the highest grossing app, reaching USD 14.6 billion in 2024, as consumer spending in TikTok grew 70% year-over-year in 2023.
If TikTok’s growth unfolds as predicted by Data.ai, it will be 3.7 times faster than Candy Crush, making it the first non-game app to surpass a mobile game in quarterly consumer spending. Meanwhile, it was estimated that 2.3 billion mobile app downloads will include some form of generative AI, particularly in video and photo editing apps.
Time is money, and social media is the next battleground for consumer spend in 2024. Historically, social platforms tended to monetize via ad revenue, with active users and time being critical measurements for ad success. In 2024, more social platforms will try to capture revenue directly from consumers. Media Sharing Networks are set to see a 152% increase in consumer spend in 2024 to approach USD 1.3 billion. This will shift some of the burden of cost back to the consumer, which previously fell to advertisers.