New research from The NPD Group shows that despite the stereotype of today"s modern teen constantly glued to his/her cell phone, mobile gaming is actually very much an adult hobby. The NPD noted that in an average month more than 29 million consumers play video games on their mobile phones and more than 7 million download games to mobile devices, but the majority of that downloading is being done by adults, not teens. NPD"s research discovered that consumers between the ages of 25 and 34 not only download more games than any other age group, but they also play them more and are more likely to make additional game purchases in the future. Breaking down the demographics for 2006, NPD"s data shows that 29 percent of games were downloaded by consumers in the 25 to 34 age group, followed by 18 to 24 (27 percent), and teens between the ages of 13 and 17 (15 percent).
And there seemed to be a parallel between download statistics and gameplay habits. 50 percent of mobile gamers in the 25 to 34 age group and 50 percent in the 18 to 24 demographic reported playing a game on their mobile device at least once a day. The percentage for teens, however, was at 41 percent. Part of this is just common sense, though. After all, adults are the ones with the money and are more likely to spend it. "...compared to adults, there simply are not as many teen cell phone subscribers as there are adult subscribers. When NPD compared the share of game downloads to the share of subscribers in each age group, the data reflect that teens, as a group, are in fact the most likely to download games," NPD explained.