Google Play surpasses handheld consoles in consumer spending

Dedicated mobile gaming devices have been on the decline, and we all know that. The new gaming giant is Apple, with more than double the consumer spending on games than the gaming optimized handhelds as a whole. However, for the first time, Google Play has surpassed the Nintendo 3DS and Sony Playstation Vita in game sales.

You may be thinking, “Well of course Google Play has more consumer spending on games; they have far more devices!” You are absolutely correct. There are 1.25 billion smartphones and 180 million tablets in this world (of which only a fraction are Google Play enabled), and only around 200 million handheld consoles. But consider this: a majority of smartphone games are free to play, and ad revenue doesn’t count. The rest of the games are cheap. Almost all games are under $5. Handheld console games are much more expensive, added more per unit to consumer spending totals. Google Play still won out.

 Google Play still has quite a way to go if it wants to pass the iOS App Store in consumer spending, but it’s getting there. Games on Android are becoming better every day, especially with the rise of Google Play Games and the services it offers to developers. With these services, developers can spend less time on multiplayer and leaderboards and more time on the actual game.