iPhone, iPod touch carve 19% gaming share from Sony, Nintendo
Over the last year, Apple's share of the US video game software market has jumped 500%, eating into the growth of console games while also putting pressure on mobile gaming leaders Nintendo and Sony.
Market share figures published by Flurry Analytics indicate that Apple's share of revenues in the entire US video game software market jumped from 1% to 5%, even as the entire market shrank year over year from $11 billion in 2008 to $9.9 billion in 2009.
"Controlling 5% revenue of a $10 billion industry in just a year and a half is significant," wrote Peter Farango, Flurry's vice president of marketing. "From a market share perspective, console games lost ground to portable platforms and iPhone.
"While the downturn in the economy may have dampened sales of the more expensive console games category, there is no denying that iPhone has generated substantial revenue and entered strongly into a mature industry."
Apple now owns 19% of portable gaming
When excluding console games such as the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 in order to focus on the portable gaming market, Apple's competitive share looks even better. Over the last year, the company's iPhone App Store games grew from 5% to a 19% share of the entire American portable gaming market.
The portable market didn't recede along with the economy as console games have; instead, portable games including the iPhone and the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable collectively grew from a $2.25 billion market in 2008 to become a $2.55 billion market in 2009.
Apple's rise in gaming software revenue effectively cut Sony's struggling PSP business in half in terms of market share by revenue, and shaved Nintendo's leadership position down from 75% to 70%.
iPad expected to help maintain gaming momentum
Apple's iPad, set for release early next month, is expected to help the company extend its assault on traditional portable gaming devices. The iPad runs existing games designed for the iPhone and iPod touch, but also enables developers to create new and more sophisticated titles designed to make full use of its larger screen.
"With companies like Electronic Arts and Gameloft joining Apple on stage during its January unveiling of the iPad, the tablet device will enjoy elite game publisher support on day one," Farango wrote.
In a previous report, Flurry "determined that more than one third of iPhone game developers come from the traditional gaming industry," indicating that "Apple has already established broad third-party game publisher support."
"Unless the other major video game platform providers (i.e., Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft) respond accordingly," the report concluded, "Apple could continue to roll up video game market share."
Market share figures published by Flurry Analytics indicate that Apple's share of revenues in the entire US video game software market jumped from 1% to 5%, even as the entire market shrank year over year from $11 billion in 2008 to $9.9 billion in 2009.
"Controlling 5% revenue of a $10 billion industry in just a year and a half is significant," wrote Peter Farango, Flurry's vice president of marketing. "From a market share perspective, console games lost ground to portable platforms and iPhone.
"While the downturn in the economy may have dampened sales of the more expensive console games category, there is no denying that iPhone has generated substantial revenue and entered strongly into a mature industry."
Apple now owns 19% of portable gaming
When excluding console games such as the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 in order to focus on the portable gaming market, Apple's competitive share looks even better. Over the last year, the company's iPhone App Store games grew from 5% to a 19% share of the entire American portable gaming market.
The portable market didn't recede along with the economy as console games have; instead, portable games including the iPhone and the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable collectively grew from a $2.25 billion market in 2008 to become a $2.55 billion market in 2009.
Apple's rise in gaming software revenue effectively cut Sony's struggling PSP business in half in terms of market share by revenue, and shaved Nintendo's leadership position down from 75% to 70%.
iPad expected to help maintain gaming momentum
Apple's iPad, set for release early next month, is expected to help the company extend its assault on traditional portable gaming devices. The iPad runs existing games designed for the iPhone and iPod touch, but also enables developers to create new and more sophisticated titles designed to make full use of its larger screen.
"With companies like Electronic Arts and Gameloft joining Apple on stage during its January unveiling of the iPad, the tablet device will enjoy elite game publisher support on day one," Farango wrote.
In a previous report, Flurry "determined that more than one third of iPhone game developers come from the traditional gaming industry," indicating that "Apple has already established broad third-party game publisher support."
"Unless the other major video game platform providers (i.e., Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft) respond accordingly," the report concluded, "Apple could continue to roll up video game market share."
Comments
Oh... and 1st (childish, I know)
The company that sells applications and services to iPhone app developers? The same company that partners with AT&T? Well, its a good thing their research bolsters their own position, I'm sure they were relieved that it didn't go any other way.
Seriously, this is about a dumb a study as I've ever heard. Our family owns a DS, a Mac, a PC, an iPhone, an iPod Touch, and a Wii. Everybody's getting more of our money, and we certainly didn't spend as much on the iPhone offerings as we did on Mario and Pokemon.
Apple iPhone must be getting close to catching up.
We can expect to see more PC game publishers developing new and porting titles to the iPhone OS platform
Now it's realized it's mistake. Of course Steve wasn't in charge then, so that makes it alright.
Yep, the iPad will make a nice child's toy; a safe, controlled and Disney like device.
Wonder if it PG's the internet by default too?
Yep, the iPad will make a nice child's toy; a safe, controlled and Disney like device.
Wonder if it PG's the internet by default too?
Your iPad-trolling isn't quite working.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
App Store disclaimer:
Looks familiar, doesn't it?
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp
So much for Disney.
A long time ago Apple was advised to pay attention to the gaming market, but it failed to do so.
Now it's realized it's mistake. Of course Steve wasn't in charge then, so that makes it alright.
Hey Troll.
I don't know why I bother, but you are totally wrong about everything here.
- The last time Apple specifically tried to enter the gaming market was when Steve *wasn't* in charge.
- Apple didn't start "paying attention" to the gaming market, the success there caught them by surprise as pretty much every executive has said.
- Apple has not "changed their attitude" about games, they don't really have an attitude to change.
- Apple has not changed anything they do in regards the gaming market beyond what they've been doing for years.
(Your last two statements are more or less "fantasy insults" so I won't respond to or quote them.)
Given the really low ASP of iPhone games, if you did market share by app/game unit sales count it would be truly staggering - 3-5x the revenue share I would guess...
Oh... and 1st (childish, I know)
That's exactly my thought. $10 is considered very cheap for the other leading game systems but very expensive for an iPhone game.
The market for PC games is declining and is now around 1 billion a year.
Got a link to back that up? Blizzard alone regularly posts over $1 billion in revenue.
The market for PC games is declining and is now around 1 billion a year.
Apple iPhone must be getting close to catching up.
We can expect to see more PC game publishers developing new and porting titles to the iPhone OS platform
The portable market as a whole represents around 1 billion. The iPhone OS represents a mere 20% of that. Thus not even close the PC market.
Also not even close to the Nintendo DS either.
(this is for casual and family games, not "hard core" XBox/PS3 war and gore stuff. in other words, for grownups.)
why the iPod? games designed for its 4:3 display at 1024x768p (or 1024x576p for letterboxed 16:9 content that your TV will zoom to full screen with no bars) will look really good on an HDTV, whereas games with far lesser iPhone/touch display specs just can't.
of course, you could also display lotsa other stuff too. like web browsing or any app.
this is the 'killer app' that AppleTV really needs.
.
- Apple has not changed anything they do in regards the gaming market beyond what they've been doing for years.
Oh, I don't know this is a pretty public change in attitude from them towards gaming. A positive one, but still a significant change.
Nintendo DS who?
Yes this is clearly big news. Nintendo still holds 70% of the market and if you take out all major console gaming systems and narrow it down to two handhelds and Apple they still come in a third out of three.
So what they are saying is in gaming Apple comes in last no matter what systems you add in or take out. Okay I got it now.
Apple isn't even remotely close to the DS in terms of sales.
I'm a huge Apple fan and am regularly impressed by how many things they get right, so I'm not mindlessly bashing, but I have a really hard time accepting these figures. 5% of all computer game revenues just doesn't seem plausible. It would be interesting to see the methodology.
US market only.
Apple isn't even remotely close to the DS in terms of sales.
per Wikipedia, from its 2004 intro to the end of 2009, 125 million DS and DS Lites had been sold worldwide. 45 mil in the Americas, 30 mil in Japan, and 30 mil elsewhere. 47 mil of those sales happened by June 30 2007, so the other 78 mil were sold since then. 29 mil were sold in 2009 alone.
from its June 2007 intro to the end of 2009, Apple sold about 75 mil iPhones and iPod touches. somewhat more than half in the US. the 2009 sales are 21 mil iPhones plus an unidentified number of touches, adding up to something close to 40 mil for both.
not to quibble over words, but 78 to 75 in the same 2.5 year time frame is certainly "close." even 125 to 75 grand total is "remotely close." but the clincher is, last year in 2009 the iPhone/touch definitely outsold the DS by a substantial margin, and there is no credible reason to believe that is not continuing currently.
but by all means, don't let the facts get in your way, even easy to find ones like these.
Flurry Analytics??
The company that sells applications and services to iPhone app developers? The same company that partners with AT&T? Well, its a good thing their research bolsters their own position, I'm sure they were relieved that it didn't go any other way.
Seriously, this is about a dumb a study as I've ever heard. Our family owns a DS, a Mac, a PC, an iPhone, an iPod Touch, and a Wii. Everybody's getting more of our money, and we certainly didn't spend as much on the iPhone offerings as we did on Mario and Pokemon.
Nothing personal but that isn't a particularly smart comment - your family experience has nothing to do with market trends. Assuming that Flurry have done the required work to release a reasonably solid market research report you have nothing to doubt and certainly not based on your personal experience. I have several consoles and have only bought iPhone games (and Wii Resort) in the past year. My personal experience doesn't matter either.
Yes this is clearly big news. Nintendo still holds 70% of the market and if you take out all major console gaming systems and narrow it down to two handhelds and Apple they still come in a third out of three.
So what they are saying is in gaming Apple comes in last no matter what systems you add in or take out. Okay I got it now.
Apple isn't even remotely close to the DS in terms of sales.
Mindless trolling again? What's happened? The results are easy to read...
Apple has 5% of overall US gaming revenue (non-PC it seems) - small but not bad from just the iXXX platform
It has 20% of US handheld gaming revenue - making it #2 (ahead of PSP)
If one multiplies the Apple $ share by the difference in ASP (Nintendo $25, Apple $5-10) then it shows that Apple is probably pretty close in terms of unit sales to Nintendo for the DS which has 3.5X its revenue - not bad in 2.5 years from scratch.
If you need any help translating basic numbers again, don't hesitate to ask someone else.