75% of mobile gaming pandemic boost will persist - Report

A new report from market intelligence firm IDC and advertising platform LoopMe says the pair expect that 75% of the consumer playtime spike experienced by mobile games during the pandemic will remain after COVID-19 subsides.

The report was based on a survey of over 3,800 consumers in the US, the UK, Japan, Germany, Brazil and Singapore who were asked how they think their playtime will be affected after the pandemic is over.

38% said they would play a little or a lot less, while 24% expected to play more. The report said the breakdown of those answers implied mobile games would retain about 75% of the spike in playtime they saw from the pandemic, with the remaining 25% falling away by late 2022.

The chosen countries were used to display data among areas that were highly affected and less affected by the virus.

63% of participants reported that they increased their time playing mobile games once the pandemic began.

6% also reported that they didn't play before COVID-19.

Additionally, the survey noted a correlation between consumer activity and per capita pandemic death rates within countries.

"Two of the clearest and most important signals we found in the survey results were that mobile gaming activity tended to increase more in the countries with the highest COVID-19 death rates," says IDC director of gaming and VR/AR Lewis Ward.

"Gamers in these same countries expected a larger pullback in gaming once the pandemic has subsided compared to gamers in countries that have had low COVID-19 death rates."