Driven by Japan, smartphone gaming revenue jumps ahead of handhelds for the first time

Last year, for the first time ever, mobile gaming revenue speared ahead of handheld consoles. According to a report sent to us by App Annie, there was a steady increase in consumer spending on iOS and Android games compared to handheld console games from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the third quarter of 2013. In total, the amount that consumers spent for both iOS and Android combined generated three times the revenue games on handheld consoles did during that same period.

This could be explained by Japan’s sudden increase in app revenue, which grew by 3.3 times during the past year. As a result, Japan has topped the US and is now the number one country in app revenue.

Also according to the report by App Annie, the increase in revenue was greatly driven by game downloads from Google Play. Japan still managed to be the number one country in app revenue even as the US dominated the iOS App Store in terms of downloads and revenue as well as Google Play in terms of downloads. The US only came third after Japan and South Korea in terms of app revenue on Google Play, while Japan is second in terms of revenue in the iOS App Store.

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