The social gaming market could be worth .4 billion by 2019 according to a new study that points to the rapid growth of smartphones and mobile tablets and devices.
Mobile technology will continue to rise over the next five years, which should also drive the expansion of the social gaming market at an annual growth rate of 16.1 percent between 2013 and 2019, according to a study by Transparency Market Research.
In 2012, the global social gaming market was valued at $5.4 billion.
“The growth of social games can be attributed to the growing demand of smartphones and tablets in the market. The ever-increasing demand of the mobile devices has made the social game developers rework their strategies and they are now designing games that can be played on these devices. The growth in the Internet subscribers has also contributed to the growth of the social game users. It is expected that in 2014 one-third of Internet users are likely to take to social gaming. Another factor resulting in the growth social gaming market is free cost of the games on the net,” the report said.
About 200 million people currently play social games online, and that figure is expected to double by 2019, the report said.
Social gaming is also becoming a marketing tool for mainstream companies such as fast food restaurants and retail outlets, further spurring growth.
“People have always been attracted to video games and these console-based games come at prices that is not affordable by common man,” said the report. “Today’s generation spend their time on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace among others to socialize with family and friends. During their time on the web, the users spend over 50 percent of their time on social games competing with friends and colleagues. Many of the game developers are now looking to tap the social media market and develop games for the social networking sites.”
