A new research undertaken to study the mobile games applications segment has revealed some astonishing results. The study found that the mobile apps stores are witnessing a growth in its market size. However, the prices of the most popular games that require paid software are witnessing a reduction.
The new study was undertaken by the market research company known as Distimo. The study included studying numerous mobile applications stores during the entire month of June. According to the results of this study, it was found that the average price of the three hundred of the most popular games downloaded from the Apple Apps Store had reduced by twenty-eight percent from the prices reported during the same period of the previous year.
The market research company Distimo calculated the average price of the top three hundred Apple Apps Store games at $2.01. In comparison, the study conducted this year found the average price of the top three hundred paid games on the Apple Apps Store was $1.69 by the month of January this year. The average price for these games last year had further reduced to $1.44.
The prices of the mobile games are important due to several reasons. The primary reason is that these games are the most popular overall segment of the apps stores tracked by Distimo. Therefore, the changes seen in the trend of the prices represent a substantial portion of the store’s complete product catalog.
The market research company tracks Apple Apps Store, BlackBerry App World, GetJar, Android, Ovi Store, Palm Apps Catalog, and Windows 7 marketplace by using the collected transactional information. The June study’s focus was on Apple Apps and games amongst all the various companies that are tracked. The highest increase was witnessed by Microsoft, which showed an increase of 149% in the games sector during the previous six months and the non-gaming applications rising by 266% in the same period.
According to the report released by Distimo, the free games that require buying in-app purchase for virtual products comprised over fifty percent of the total earnings amongst the two hundred most popular games on Apple Apps Store. These comprised thirty-five percent of the three hundred most popular free games that were purchased using virtual money. In the same period last year, the percentage of the total revenue was eight percent, which has now increased to 52% in 2011, which is a ten times increase in one year.