2012 Portable Gaming Charts Indicate Mobile Games Already Surpass 3DS, Vita

App Annie and the IDC (International Data Corporation) have recently released their 2012 Portable Gaming Report. Showing all manner of numbers and other fancy statistical goodies, there’s plenty of predictably shocking facts you can shake your head at. Among the top spots, Nintendo, the Android OS and Pokemon sit comfortably well. Also, the Asian-Pacific market REALLY loves their Google Play games.

The Android market has been steadily growing, but I still find it hard to believe that it grew this substantially in 2012. As the runner-up, iOS isn’t doing shabby for obvious reasons and the Windows phones are still relatively new. I think the real surprise here is that the Blackberry Market is still around.

Further evidence that Nintendo is the Immovable Tyrant Guard of the mobile gaming market. The great thing is, with the announcement of the Playstation 4 and several features linking directly to the Vita, maybe it’ll be enough to help Sony sway some favor because, let’s face facts, Nintendo isn’t moving from the top spot anytime soon.

Clearly games have surfaced as integral purchases when people pick up any kind of mobile device. Though the Android market was the most bustling with activity, iOS devices just barely topped Android sales.

And there you have it – the apocalypse is now. If you combine both Google Play store and iOS purchases, they beat out dedicated handheld sales. I suppose it’s not so surprising right now, but whenever I look at it, the numbers are still quite alarming.

So North America loves their iOS stuff, the Asian Pacific can’t live without Google Play and the rest of the world doesn’t know what Google is. Got it.

It’s pretty obvious who the top spot for dedicated handhelds belongs to, but I certainly have no idea what those other games are. Apparently anything with Kakao in it is pure gold.

Mobile gaming has become absolutely huge in the past year or so and with even more advanced devices coming out every month, it’s only going to get bigger. Thanks goes out to App Annie and IDC for the great information! What surprised you the most? Sound off in the comments, fellow readers!



0 Shares