Mobile Games Maturation

App Annie’s 2015 Retrospective, which looks at the mobile apps market as a whole in addition to mobile games, notes that new mobile games in 2015 hit 90% of their lifetime downloads in approximately 17 weeks or four months after release. This is down 60% from 50 weeks in 2014. Demonstrating how crowded and competitive the mobile games space has become, this shorter span to generate the majority of downloads will have a considerable impact on games portfolio management and development cycles, additional content release schedules, and user acquisition and retention. Apps publishers not only have to hit the ground running with all monetization and marketing plans in place but also have to be agile and responsive to user feedback and games analytics. App Annie noted, “Increased marketing spend, press and public interest are likely to drive shorter maturity cycles still, while rising competition is likely to further fragment the revenue concentration in mobile games.”