App Annie, a mobile data and analysis platform, announced the "Game Spotlight 2020 Review" with IDC, a global market intelligence company, to review the 2020 game industry trend and changes in the mobile game market caused by COVID-19.
According to the report, the number of downloads of mobile games in the first quarter of this year reached a record high of 12.3 billion due to the effects of the new coronavirus. The figure is up 18 percent from the same period last year.
NC Lineage 2M was the biggest sales game in the first quarter on Google Play as well as in Korea.
Viewing mobile game downloads on a monthly basis in the first quarter, it was the biggest increase in March when COVID-19 was fully expanded. The average weekly mobile game download in March increased 35 percent from January.
Spain saw the largest increase of 60 percent in the period, with Japan rising 50 percent and France, Britain and Italy going up 40 percent.
Game app downloads accounted for 40 percent of Apple's App Store and Google Play in the first quarter, but its sales share reached 70 percent. Consumer spending on mobile games rose 2 percent year-on-year to $16.6 billion in the first quarter.
"The year 2020 will be a year of record growth for mobile games," App Annie said in a report. "Consumer spending for mobile games will be 2.8 times that of PC games and 3.1 times that of home console games in 2020."
In the first quarter of 2020, the world's largest consumer spending games were Tencent's "Hwapyeongjungyoung" in iOS and Lineage 2M in Google Play. Lineage 2M was the highest-selling game in Korea, and Lineage M was the second-largest. Third place was "Rise of the Kingdoms" by Lilith Games, and fourth place was Nexon's "V4."
In Korea, 13.4 million mobile games were down for a week in March, when COVID-19 was fully spread. The figure is up 15 percent from the weekly average of 11.7 million in January.
"Consumers are looking for new ways to stay at home and communicate with others," an App Annie official said. "As access to mobile devices becomes easier, multiplayer game apps will continue to grow."
