2025 Gamers Report: Age, Gender, Location, Habits

Gaming has become a truly global pastime. It entertains billions of people across all regions and ages. In this report, we’ll explore the latest gamer statistics, including how many gamers are there in the world and who they are.

We’ll break down the total gamer population, look at demographics like age and gender, examine what types of games people play and how they behave, and dive into how gamers spend money.

A special focus is given to mobile gamer statistics, since mobile is the biggest segment of the gaming world today. We’ll also highlight emerging trends like cloud gaming, cross-platform play, and regional differences.

How Many Gamers Are There in the World?

The global gaming population continues to grow year after year.

This means nearly half of the world’s population plays video games in some form.

This number has climbed dramatically over the past decade – it’s up by well over 1 billion players since 2015. Back in 2015, there were around 2.0 billion gamers globally; by 2023 it reached about 3.22 billion, and now it’s about 3.32 billion. (Newzoo, 2024).

In other words, the audience for games keeps expanding to new highs each year, albeit the growth rate has slowed slightly as the market matures.

The Number of Gamers by Region

This immense player base is not evenly distributed around the world.

In fact, Asia has over twice as many gamers as any other region.

For perspective, the next largest region is Europe with around 715 million players, followed by Latin America (~420 million) and North America (~285 million) (Newzoo, 2024).

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is home to about 168 million gamers, and Sub-Saharan Africa has around 144 million, while Oceania has roughly 32 million (Newzoo, 2024).

Asia’s huge population and widespread adoption of mobile gaming make it the epicenter of the global games market – Asia alone accounts for close to 45% of the world’s gamers.

Every region has seen growth in its gaming population, but emerging markets are driving a lot of the recent increases.

Countries in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America have rapidly expanding gamer communities thanks to improving internet access and the affordability of smartphones.

Meanwhile, North America and Western Europe are more saturated markets (a high percentage of people already play) and thus show slower growth. Still, even in mature markets the absolute number of players is inching up each year as the population grows and gaming maintains its popularity.

Total Number of Mobile Gamers Worldwide

Mobile gaming deserves a special mention when counting gamers, because mobile has massively widened the reach of games.

In other words, out of all 3.3+ billion gamers, the vast majority play on smartphones or tablets. By comparison, an estimated 908 million play on PCs and about 630 million play on consoles (Newzoo, 2024). (Many gamers play on multiple platforms, so these platform figures overlap – but they show that mobile dwarfs the others in user count.)

The accessibility of mobile games – which often are free-to-play and run on devices nearly everyone owns – has truly made gaming mainstream worldwide. From rural villages to big cities, mobile gaming has introduced hundreds of millions of new people to video games. This also means “gamers worldwide” increasingly includes a very broad audience, not just those who own a console or high-end PC.

Historical Figures

Historically, the growth of the global gamer number has been impressive.

In the early 2010s, gaming was already big, but nowhere near today’s scale. Each year through the 2010s, tens of millions of new players joined. For example, the global gamer population was around 2.03 billion in 2015 and grew around 6–7% each year in that period (SensorTower, 2025).

Growth accelerated with the spread of smartphones and better internet – 2020 saw a jump (up to ~2.8 billion) partly boosted by the pandemic keeping people at home, and it passed 3 billion around 2021–2022.

Now, about 3.3 billion people are gamers, and even with a slightly slower growth rate, we’re on track for roughly 3.75 billion gamers by 2027 (Newzoo, 2025).

Gamer Demographics: Age, Gender, Location & Devices

Who exactly are these billions of gamers?

The stereotype might once have been teenage boys, but the reality in 2024 is a very diverse crowd.

Gamer Age Breakdown

Approximately 80% of gamers are over the age of 18, which translates to about 2.47 billion adult players worldwide (Statista, 2025).

The single largest age segment of players globally is young adults: the 18–34 year old group makes up roughly 38% of all gamers (over 1.1 billion people) (Statista, 2025).

There are also hundreds of millions of older gamers.

For instance, about 14% of gamers are between 35–44 years old, 12% are 45–54, around 9% are 55–64, and about 7% of gamers are seniors over 65 (Statista, 2025).

Gaming is truly a cross-generational activity now.

It’s common to find parents and even grandparents playing games (often on mobile devices) alongside the younger folks. Of course, children and teens are still a significant portion (about 20% of gamers are under 18), but they are no longer the majority of the gaming audience. The broad age spread of gamers shows that gaming has become as ubiquitous as watching TV or listening to music – an entertainment medium for all ages.

Gamer Gender Distribution

Gender diversity in gaming has also improved over the years.

In 2024 it was estimated that about 45% of gamers worldwide are female. In raw numbers, that equates to roughly 1.39 billion female players, compared to around 1.7 billion male players.

The remaining sliver identifies as non-binary or other genders.

While there is still a slight male majority overall (about 55% male vs 45% female globally), the gap has closed considerably from a decade or two ago.

Many game genres and communities today have substantial female representation – especially with the rise of mobile and casual games, which attract a broad audience.

The notion that “gaming is for boys” is outdated; women around the world enjoy games just as much, whether it’s puzzle games on mobile or major MMO and RPG titles on PC/console.

It’s worth noting that certain segments still skew one way (for instance, console and shooter game audiences lean more male, while match-3 mobile games lean female), but taken as a whole, the gamer population is close to gender balanced in 2024.

Gamer Penetration Statistics

In terms of where gamers live, the regional breakdown in the previous section already highlighted that Asia-Pacific contains the largest number of players.

But another way to look at location is gamer penetration – i.e. what percentage of a region’s population are gamers. Some countries have an especially high gaming penetration rate.

Other countries with high gamer penetration include South Korea, Sweden, and the United States.

Typically, wealthier and highly connected countries tend to have a larger share of their people gaming (since they have the devices and internet access for it). In developing regions, the absolute number of gamers can be large (due to population size), but the percentage of people who game is lower than in the West or East Asia.

This is changing quickly as smartphones spread. For instance, India has hundreds of millions of gamers but still a lot of room to grow as more of its 1.4 billion people come online and discover mobile games.

Gamer Device Preferences

Device preferences are an important aspect of gamer demographics today. So, which platforms are people using to play games?

Thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones, mobile has become the common denominator for modern gamers. Even among traditionally “core” gaming audiences, mobile play is very prevalent.

According to Newzoo’s research, about 85% of global consumers engage with games in some form, and 80% actually play games – largely driven by mobile access (Newzoo, 2024).

Mobile’s reach is massive: as noted, roughly 2.8–3.0 billion people play mobile games.

That includes both casual players (perhaps playing simple games like Candy Crush) and more core gamers who also use mobile as one of their gaming platforms.

By contrast, around 900 million play on PCs and ~600 million on consoles worldwide (Newzoo, 2024).

Console gaming is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe, and Japan, whereas PC gaming has strong communities globally (including in Asia and Eastern Europe).

Mobile is popular absolutely everywhere, from urban centers to remote areas, simply because a cheap Android phone can play hundreds of games for free.

It’s also worth noting that many gamers are multi-platform – for example, a person might play console games at home but also play mobile games during their commute. In fact, a huge proportion of console/PC gamers also play on mobile.

The lines between device categories are blurring: big franchises like Fortnite, Minecraft, or Genshin Impact run on PC, console, and mobile, allowing players to jump between devices.

Still, when looking at demographics, you might characterize console/PC gamers as a somewhat more hardcore segment (often skewing slightly older and male, with higher average income and more time dedicated to gaming), whereas mobile-only gamers include a broader mix of casual players, younger kids, and older adults who wouldn’t label themselves “gamers” but do play Candy Crush or Wordle regularly.

Gamer Income Level

Income level can influence gaming habits as well, tying into both device preference and spending behavior. Generally, gaming has enthusiasts across all income brackets, but higher-income individuals may have more access to expensive hardware (like gaming PCs, next-gen consoles, VR headsets) and are able to spend more on games. In regions with lower average incomes, gaming is still hugely popular but tends to gravitate to more affordable platforms (mobile phones, internet cafés for PC gaming, etc.) and free-to-play content.

That said, the free-to-play model means even those with modest incomes can enjoy top-tier games (League of Legends, Fortnite, mobile MOBAs, etc.) without upfront cost.

We see that when economic times get tough, players do adjust their spending – a recent survey of mobile game spenders found that 32% of them plan to reduce their in-game spending in 2024 due to tighter budgets and economic concerns (Mistplay, 2024).

Interestingly, 41% of the highest spenders (the “whales”) said they plan to cut back, indicating that even big spenders feel the pinch of inflation and economic uncertainty (Mistplay, 2024).

In short, gamers come from all walks of life financially, but macro-economic factors can impact how and what they spend in games. (We’ll explore spending habits more in a later section.)

Gamer Interests and Behavior: Genres, Play Habits & Social Aspects

What kinds of games do people like to play, and how do they engage with games?

The interests and behaviors of gamers are incredibly diverse, but we can highlight some common trends.

Genre Preferences

“Casual” here usually refers to easy-to-pick-up games that don’t require intense time investment – think puzzle games, match-3 games, endless runners, etc. These games appeal to the broadest audience, including many mobile-first players.

However, beyond casual titles, many other genres have huge followings.

Action-adventure games, shooters, RPGs (role-playing games), sports and racing games, strategy games, simulation games – all of these genres claim millions of enthusiasts.

Genre preferences often vary by demographic: for example, younger gamers (Gen Z and Gen Alpha) tend to enjoy adventure and shooter games a lot, while older gamers might lean more toward card games, puzzles, or strategy.

There are also regional tastes; e.g., strategy and MMO games are extremely popular in East Asia, sports games and shooters are big in North America/Europe, etc.

But if one genre must be crowned king globally, it’s the broad “casual” category, which engages the most players (over six in ten gamers play casual titles) on some platform (Newzoo, 2024).

On mobile especially, simple casual games dominate download charts. Meanwhile, among core gamers, action-adventure and shooter games are often top favorites (Newzoo, 2024).

For instance, franchises like Minecraft and Call of Duty rank among the most played game series for Gen Z gamers (Newzoo, 2024).

How Long Do Gamers Play For?

In terms of play frequency and session length, gaming habits can range from a few minutes here and there to marathon multi-hour sessions.

Overall, most gamers play games multiple days per week.

On average, a typical gamer globally might spend on the order of 7–8 hours per week playing games, though this average is skewed by the mix of casual and hardcore players.

To break it down: PC and console players tend to spend roughly 2 hours per day when they do play (Newzoo, 2024), but they might not play every single day.

Console/PC gamers average about 2.6–3 days per week of play, according to survey data, whereas mobile players play more like 3.5 days per week on average (Newzoo, 2024).

This aligns with intuitive behavior – someone might fire up a console game a few nights a week for a longer session, while they might fiddle with phone games almost every day during spare moments.

In fact, mobile gamers often engage in “snackable” play sessions that average only around 5–10 minutes each.

The median session length on mobile is about 5–6 minutes, although the top 25% best-performing mobile games achieve around 8–9 minutes per session on average (GameAnalytics, 2025).

Many mobile players have multiple short sessions per day; globally, mobile users tend to open a gaming app roughly 4 times per day on average (GameAnalytics, 2025).

By contrast, a console or PC gamer might have one longer session in a day (say a 2-hour play session) rather than many little sessions. It’s interesting that total playtime per day between groups isn’t wildly different – one study found PC/console players spend about 30 minutes more per day gaming than mobile players on average (Newzoo, 2024).

This suggests mobile gamers compensate for short sessions by playing more frequently throughout the day.

Of course, these are averages – individual gaming habits vary from the ultra-casual player who might play 10 minutes a week, to the hardcore gamer putting in 4+ hours a day.

Why Do People Play Games? Breaking Down Player Motivations

Gamer motivations are a mix of entertainment, relaxation, challenge, social interaction, escapism, and more.

Beyond relaxation, other top motivators include engaging with a compelling fantasy or story, and achieving goals/progression.

For example, in one survey of mobile game spenders, 53% said they play for a sense of fantasy (immersing themselves in another world) and 43% said progressing and accomplishing things in-game motivates them (Mistplay, 2024).

Competition is another motivator for many – some gamers love to challenge themselves or others and improve their skills.

Social connection is also key: plenty of gamers play to connect with friends or family, or to meet new people online. Especially in multiplayer and MMO games, the social element (teamwork, guilds, chat, etc.) is a big draw.

Different segments emphasize different motivations: for instance, younger male players might value competition and challenge more, while older or more casual players might emphasize relaxation and passing time.

But overall, it’s clear that games fulfill a variety of emotional needs – whether it’s blowing off steam after work, enjoying an interactive story, or feeling a sense of achievement by leveling up.

Gaming As a Social Activity

Gaming has also become a social activity in a broad sense, extending beyond just playing the game itself. A huge number of people watch gaming content and participate in gaming communities.

Watching others play has become an entertainment genre of its own, evidenced by the popularity of platforms like Twitch and YouTube Gaming. For many gamers, watching streams and video content is a way to improve their skills, stay entertained, or feel connected to a community.

In fact, in regions like Asia and MENA, over 1 billion gamers watch gaming or esports streams regularly (GameDevReports, 2025).

This makes streaming one of the main ways gamers in those regions discover new games and stay engaged with the gaming world.

Apart from viewing, gamers often engage in online discussions – whether on forums, Discord servers, Reddit, or social media – to talk about their favorite games. Over one-third of gamers globally participate in some form of gaming community or create gaming content themselves (Newzoo, 2024).

This could be as simple as chatting in a game’s subreddit or as involved as modding a game or making fan art/videos. The key point is that gaming is not always a solitary activity; it’s a cultural touchstone and a shared hobby that brings people together.

Some Still Enjoy Solo Play

That said, preferences vary – some gamers prefer to play solo and treat gaming as their private relaxation time, while others almost exclusively play with friends or online multiplayer.

Many do a bit of both.

Surveys in the US have shown a majority of gamers enjoy playing with others (either cooperatively or competitively), but also enjoy single-player experiences.

For example, a recent ESA report found 65% of gamers play with friends (either online or in-person) at least once a week. The rise of social features in games (clans, friend lists, voice chat) and the integration with social media have further blurred the line – even single-player games often have communities built around them.

All in all, modern gamers are not just playing; they’re watching, sharing, and connecting.

Gamer Spending Habits: Purchases, Monetization & Whales

Gaming isn’t just big in terms of number of players – it’s also a massive industry financially with plenty of monetization methods.

How are gamers opening their wallets?

The spending habits of players differ widely: many spend nothing at all (enjoying free games), while others spend on things like game purchases, in-app purchases, subscriptions, and more.

F2P Games with In-App Purchases Dominate

A huge trend in the past decade is the dominance of the free-to-play model with in-app purchases (IAP).

The majority of today’s gamers play free games and only a minority of players actually spend money in-game.

The flip side is that those who do spend, spend a lot more than average – these are often referred to as whales in the industry. In fact, a tiny fraction of players account for a giant share of revenue.

This extreme imbalance highlights how important a relatively small group of high spenders can be to a game’s financial success. Many millions of players might enjoy a game for free while a small core of dedicated fans purchases items, skins, battle passes, etc. to fund the game. Game developers pay a lot of attention to retaining and satisfying these high-value users, for obvious reasons.

More Gamers Are Spending on Games

Even though only a small percentage spend in some games, overall more gamers are spending money on games than ever before simply because the audience has grown so large.

The ways gamers spend have shifted towards digital and recurring purchases. In-app purchases (microtransactions) account for the bulk of revenue in mobile and free-to-play games.

Things like buying virtual currency, extra lives, cosmetic skins, loot boxes, or levels are common.

In fact, about 95% of all consumer spending on mobile games comes from in-app purchases (TechCrunch).

These purchases are often small (a few dollars each), but can be made repeatedly. The free-to-play model relies on voluntary IAP for monetization, and it’s enormously successful when the player base is big enough.

On PC and console, full game purchases (paying $60 for a AAA title, for example) still exist and contribute a lot of revenue, but even there we see a trend of additional monetization: downloadable content (DLCs), season passes, and microtransactions in premium games.

Games-as-a-service have become common, where even after buying a game, players might spend on cosmetic items or expansions.

Subscriptions Are Becoming More Popular

Subscriptions in gaming have risen in popularity too.

These services include things like Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, Nintendo Switch Online, Apple Arcade, Google Play Pass, or subscription MMOs.

Subscription models offer players access to a library of games or perks for a monthly fee. On consoles, a large majority of players subscribe to online services; for instance, around 74% of console gamers in the U.S. have some gaming subscription.

Subscriptions provide steady revenue for gaming companies and convenient access for players – a win-win if the value is right.

Besides platform subscriptions, some games themselves have optional subscription plans or “VIP passes” that grant in-game benefits each month.

According to surveys, about 23% of mobile spenders on average purchase game subscriptions or VIP passes, though this skews higher (35%+) for certain “mid-core” player personas (Mistplay, 2024).

The rise of subscriptions in gaming mirrors what happened with music and video – many consumers are shifting from outright purchases to an “all-you-can-play” subscription buffet.

Cosmetic Monetization

Beyond standard purchases and subscriptions, gamers love to spend on cosmetic and convenience items. Things like character skins, costumes, weapon designs, dance emotes, etc., have become a huge market.

Players often don’t mind paying a few dollars to make their character look cool or unique.

Games like Fortnite popularized this by selling only cosmetics (no gameplay advantage) and making billions in the process.

Additionally, season passes/battle passes are now a staple monetization strategy.

Over half of top-grossing games offer a seasonal pass that, for a modest price, lets players unlock rewards as they play over a season.

This keeps players engaged and spending continuously.

While exact stats vary by game, battle passes often dramatically increase conversion (turning non-payers into payers) because they’re seen as a high-value deal.

Many gamers who would never buy individual expensive items will happily drop ~$10 on a season pass every couple of months. This trend shows how spending habits can be influenced by clever monetization design – even “low spenders” are drawn in by value-packed bundles or passes.

Game Whales: Big Spenders

Let’s talk more about the “whales,” “dolphins,” and “minnows” – terms often used to categorize spenders.

Gaming Whales

As mentioned, whales (the big spenders) might be only 1-2% of users but provide a huge chunk of revenue.

Whales can spend hundreds, thousands, or in rare cases even millions of dollars on a game they love.

For instance, there have been reports of individual mobile game whales spending over $1 million on a single game over time.

However, those extreme cases are not the norm – more typically, a “whale” might spend $100+ per month on a game. The average whale’s spend is often in the realm of tens of dollars per transaction, but with many transactions over time.

Dophins

Then there are “dolphins,” a term for mid-level spenders.

These might be ~5-15% of players who spend occasionally – maybe $5 here, $20 there – adding up to perhaps a few dozen dollars a month.

They collectively also contribute a significant share of revenue.

Minnows

Lastly, “minnows” or low spenders might spend only a couple bucks or only on rare occasions. And the vast majority of players in many free games spend $0, enjoying the game entirely for free.

From a gamer’s perspective, this is great – you can often play top-tier games free if you choose – and from a business perspective, it means catering to whales without neglecting the free players (who provide the community and player-base that also attract spenders).

PC and Console Gamers Spend More

Notably, PC and console gamers are more likely to spend money on games than mobile gamers, because buying full games or DLC is more ingrained in PC/console culture.

Newzoo’s data shows more than half of console players are “medium or high spenders” (meaning they spend at least $5 per month on games), whereas a larger share of mobile players spend nothing or very little (Newzoo, 2024).

In fact, only about 8% of mobile players qualify as high spenders (>$25/month), compared to 15% of PC players and 22% of console players (Newzoo, 2024).

So while mobile has a reputation of whale-driven revenue, on average an individual mobile gamer spends less than an individual console/PC gamer.

Many mobile users treat games as a totally free diversion with ad support (which is another monetization channel – watching ads yields money for devs).

Interestingly, a lot of mobile gamers actually prefer ads over paying: around 82% of mobile players say they’d rather play a free game with ads than pay upfront for a game without ads (eMarketer,).

This consumer preference is why the ad-supported, free-to-play model thrives.

Spotlight on Mobile Gamers: 2025 Statistics

Mobile gamers form the largest segment of the gaming population, so they warrant a closer look.

Mobile gaming has its own unique patterns of play and player behavior.

Genre Preferences of Mobile Gamers

For starters, the genre preferences on mobile skew somewhat differently than on PC/console. Mobile is the kingdom of casual games: puzzle games (like Candy Crush), hyper-casual titles (simplistic one-tap games), and casual simulation or lifestyle games reign supreme in download counts.

According to 2025 GameAnalytics data, genres like Arcade, Puzzle, and Card games tend to have very broad appeal on mobile and even boast some of the best early retention metrics.

However, their long-term retention can be lower, as players might churn once novelty wears off.

On the other hand, more “core” mobile genres like Strategy, RPG, and Shooter on mobile have slightly smaller audiences but deeper engagement.

For instance, mobile MOBAs (like Honor of Kings or Mobile Legends) and Battle Royale shooters (like PUBG Mobile, Free Fire) are hugely popular in Asia and beyond, though they target a more hardcore mobile gamer group.

Strategy games (think Clash of Clans or State of Survival) also rank highly in terms of player loyalty and monetization on mobile.

In fact, strategy games often show strong session lengths and retention – players will come back day after day to check base upgrades, engage in guild battles, etc.

One analysis noted that while arcade and hyper-casual games top early retention charts, genres like Board, Card, and Puzzle games tend to retain more players by Day 28, indicating those games attract a steady, loyal audience that sticks longer (GameAnalytics, 2025).

Meanwhile, lifestyle and simulation games (like design/home décor games, interactive story games) on mobile often have very high session counts – players log in many times a day – but each session is short (Mistplay, 2023).

This aligns with the lifestyles of their predominantly adult, often female audience who play intermittently throughout the day.

Mobile Gamers Prefer Short Sessions

One defining characteristic of mobile gaming is short, frequent play sessions.

As mentioned earlier, the average mobile gaming session is only on the order of 5 minutes (median) to perhaps 8 minutes (90th percentile games) (GameAnalytics, 2025).

It’s common for a mobile player to fire up a game multiple times a day.

In regions like Africa and the Middle East, mobile players average as high as 5.4 sessions per day, which is among the highest in the world (GameAnalytics, 2025). Even in other regions, ~3–4 sessions a day is typical.

Contrast this with most console players who might have one session every day or two.

However, because each session is short, the cumulative playtime isn’t necessarily huge (unless the person binge-plays multiple sessions back-to-back).

Some mobile gamers do get engrossed for longer periods – e.g., playing a 30-minute match in a battle royale game on mobile or a long session in Genshin Impact on their phone. But the beauty of mobile is you can cater to both quick drop-in play and longer engagements depending on the game and player’s mood.

Mobile Gamer Retention Statistics

Retention – keeping players coming back over days and weeks – is a major challenge in mobile gaming, given how easy it is for users to download a new game, try it, and drop it.

The industry benchmark figures show steep drop-offs:

These numbers underline how competitive and fad-driven the mobile space is – users churn quickly if a game doesn’t hook them deeply.

The top-performing games, of course, do better: a hit mobile game might have 40% D1 retention, 15% D7 retention, and perhaps 5% D30 retention, which at scale of millions of downloads can sustain a huge player base.

Hyper-casual games typically have high download counts but very low long-term retention (often <2% by D7), essentially trading virality for longevity. More core games with deeper meta (RPGs, strategy) usually retain a bit better long-term since invested players stick around for content updates and social ties.

Developers use various tactics to improve retention: daily login rewards, ongoing events, social/clan features (players who join a clan/guild are far more likely to stay engaged), and of course, ensuring the gameplay loop is satisfying.

Still, the reality is that mobile gamers have tons of alternatives at their fingertips – if one game gets boring, another is just a tap away.

That’s why user acquisition is a continuous effort in mobile (and why you see so many mobile game ads everywhere).

Only a fraction of acquired users will stick, so games need to constantly refill the funnel or re-engage lapsed players via notifications and updates.

How Mobile Gamers Discover New Games?

Discoverability of mobile games is another interesting facet.

With millions of apps on the App Store and Google Play, how do gamers find new mobile games to play?

A lot of it happens through app store featuring and charts, as well as advertising.

In fact, app store exploration and friend recommendations were nearly as influential as ads in that survey – about 39% of players said they find new games via browsing app store rankings, and ~35% find games through direct recommendations from people they know (Mistplay, 2023).

Social media also plays a role; seeing friends talk about a game or seeing it mentioned in online communities can spark interest.

Many mobile gamers also discover games through watching streamers or YouTubers showcase them.

Interestingly, referral programs can be quite effective on mobile: over 73% of mobile spenders said they installed at least one game in the past year because someone referred/invited them (Mistplay, 2024).

Games often encourage this by giving referral bonuses. The viral potential is high – if a game catches on with a group of friends, it can spread like wildfire through social circles.

We’ve seen phenomena like Pokémon GO where real-world social buzz drove millions to try it.

On the flip side, the sheer volume of paid advertising for mobile games (those sometimes annoying video ads in your free apps, for example) indicates how fiercely companies compete to acquire users.

North America, in particular, sees heavy ad spend for mobile games, whereas in emerging markets, word-of-mouth might play a larger relative role since ad saturation is lower.

Mobile Gamer Playing and Spending Habits

Mobile gamers as a whole tend to be more cost-sensitive than PC/console gamers. Many have an expectation that games should be free or very cheap on mobile.

However, mobile makes up for it in volume of players.

Also, because mobile gamers are used to free-to-play, they have also become accustomed to other forms of monetization like ads.

As noted, players would rather endure ads than pay upfront.

So, mobile game developers monetize non-spenders by showing optional ads (often rewarded ads where you watch a 30-second clip to get an in-game reward).

This has become a significant revenue stream – some hyper-casual games derive the majority of revenue from ads since hardly anyone buys IAP in those.

In-App Ads

According to industry stats, 74% of mobile gamers in the U.S. are willing to watch video ads in exchange for in-game rewards (eMarketer).

This ad-supported model means even players who never spend a penny are indirectly contributing to the game’s revenue by giving a bit of their attention. It’s a trade-off most mobile gamers accept.

One key difference for mobile gamers versus other platforms is the drop barrier – since mobile games are usually free and easily accessible, players have little invested initially, so they’ll drop a game at the first sign of boredom or frustration.

Console/PC gamers, having paid for a game, might give it more of a chance.

This means mobile devs must streamline onboarding and tutorials – if a game doesn’t grab someone in the first day, it may lose them forever.

So there’s a window to hook players as free users before expecting revenue.

Mobile gamers also tend to play multiple games concurrently – they might have a rotation of 3-5 games they switch between when one has a cooldown or they simply want variety.

This contrasts a bit with, say, a hardcore PC gamer who might sink all free time into one title like Fortnite or FIFA. The mobile ethos is more snack-like and multi-tasking, though of course there are mobile enthusiasts who primarily focus on one game (e.g., someone who basically only plays Clash of Clans daily for years).

Final Thoughts on Gamers

Today’s gamers aren’t a single audience. They’re playing on mobile, console, and PC. They span every age group, region, and interest. And they’re spending more time—and money—across more platforms than ever before.

For developers and marketers, that means one thing: a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work anymore.

To succeed, you need to understand how these segments behave, what drives their engagement, and where they spend their time. That means digging into data, optimizing for each platform, and staying flexible as trends shift.

Whether you’re launching your first title or scaling your next hit, keeping the full spectrum of gamers in mind is key to building experiences—and campaigns—that resonate.

Data Sources

1. Newzoo (2024). How Consumers Engage with Games Today – Global Gamer Study 2024.
2. Newzoo (2024). 2024 Global Games Market Report
3. Statista (2025). Distribution of Video Gamers in the U.S. and Worldwide by Age and Gender
4. Mistplay (2023). 2023 Mobile Gaming Loyalty Report
5. Mistplay (2024). 2024 Mobile Gaming Spender Report
6. SensorTower (2025), State of Mobile 2025 Report
7. GameAnalytics (2025). 2025 Mobile Gaming Benchmarks
8. eMarketer (2022). Mobile Gaming
9. GameDevReports (2025). Asia and MENA Gaming Market Forecast 2025
10. Sony Interactive Entertainment (2025). PlayStation Plus Subscribers and Engagement Stats