The latest ESA report says more than a third of all players are mobile-exclusive

• The Entertainment Software Association has released their latest report, which we dug into
• A whopping 31% of all gamers only play on mobile
• We discuss in brief what this means for us as players, and what message devs should take from it

It goes without saying that mobile is perhaps the biggest part of gaming, after all, while it’s tough to get a capable PC or console in certain regions, virtually everyone has a phone in their pockets. But just how ubiquitous really is it? Well, the latest Entertainment Software Association (ESA) report shows us just how big mobile gaming really is.

We’ll try and keep this as engaging as possible since we know not everyone digs into statistics. But essentially mobile reigns supreme at 67% of all players statistically playing games on that platform. However, for those who play exclusively (i.e. on nothing but) mobile it stands at a slightly smaller, but still whopping 31% compared to 9% and 8% for PC & consoles respectively.

Big numbers

So what does that mean for you and me? Well, not much, but it is a very interesting factoid. More than that it also points out the huge potential mobile has as a platform. While we’re never going to criticise gaming companies for working within their limitations it’s undeniable that mobile has often been saddled with a reputation for money-gouging free-to-play games, and that’s a shame because it reaches billions of people worldwide.

Hopefully what mobile-sceptic developers take from this is that, even if only a small portion of this audience wants their game, that small portion is proportionally massive compared to virtually every other platform out there. Whether they be premium, RPG, puzzlers or more experimental games that might otherwise struggle to find an audience.

And if you want to start digging into games on mobile there’s no better place to start than with our list of the best mobile games of 2024 (so far), or you can take a look at what’s coming up for the rest of the year with our list of the most anticipated mobile games.