Games Are the Most Popular Mobile Apps in the US

Mobile phone users in the United States are attracted to games more than to other mobile applications available for download for their devices, a new study from Nielsen shows.

Apparently, 93 percent of those who downloaded an application on their devices in the past 30 days are willing to pay for the games they play, while only 76 percent of them would pay for new applications.

Moreover, the study shows that Android, iOS and Windows Phone users are most likely to download the games they play, while owners of BlackBerry phones or feature phones would rather play the games that came pre-installed on their devices.

The company notes that these results reflect the opinion of mobile phone users who have played mobile games during the past 30 days, while the entire study includes all those who downloaded an application in the timeframe.

“Games continue to be the most popular app category, and according to Nielsen research, 93 percent of app downloaders — those who have downloaded an app within the past 30 days – are willing to pay for the games they play,” Nielsen notes.

On average, mobile phone users would play games on their handsets for about 7.8 hours per month, though the actual play times differ from a mobile platform to another.

According to the research firm those users who own an iPhone would rather play mobile games on their devices for about 14.7 hours each month. Basically, they would spend twice as much time playing games as the average handset user.

At the same time, Nielsen shows that the owners of handsets running under Google's Android operating system tend to play on their devices for around 9.3 hours per month.

Nielsen also came up with a series of charts that show the smartphone consumers who have played games on their mobile devices in the past 30 days, to better illustrate the findings of their study.