Revenues from mobile games will grow to nearly $10 billion by 2009, driven by the increasing popularity of casual gaming and the larger variety of gaming-friendly handsets, according to a report from Juniper Research.
The company predicts more than 460 million mobile users will download games by 2009, more than double the number of mobile-game users today. Juniper said much of the growth will come from emerging markets.
“Game downloads have already overtaken those of ringtones in a number of Western European markets, while mobile handsets are now the de facto games console in many developing countries,” said Windsor Holden, the report’s author.
Juniper noted high browsing and downloading costs, along with a lack of titles focused at female gamers, could hamper mobile-game adoption.
The report also predicts global revenues from in-game advertising will increase from $90 million this year to more than $1.2 billion in 2012.
Emerging markets to drive mobile game use
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