Home Men aged 21-35 are the biggest mobile gaming whales

Men aged 21-35 are the biggest mobile gaming whales

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Lusty whales

Mobile gaming is often laughed at, or treated as a blight on the “real” gaming world. It is also treated a female-oriented experience with most hard core gamers saying that only women play on phones or tablets. Gavin even outed his wife as a mobile gaming whale. We already knew that men spent more on digital gaming, but it seems that the trend extends to mobile as well.

New research out of NewZoo looked into the big spenders on mobile games. They are only 2.8% of all mobile gamers, but spend more than $25 per month on or in mobile games. Some of the info about them seems fairly common sense, but some of it was rather surprising.

As you’d expect, mobile big spenders consume a ton of content of all types. They’re more likely to have Spotify and Netflix subscriptions, spend a lot of time reading newspapers and magazines and generally consuming content across platforms. They also love prepaid cards, with 90% of them having bought prepaid cards in the past and 38% buying them at least once a week. That’s a lot of prepayment, and something that I’m surprised more games and apps haven’t taken advantage of for co-branding on cards.

Surprisingly, big spenders are also extremely sporty:

Big Spenders on mobile games love participating in and viewing sports; 43% play soccer, 32% enjoy running and 29% cycle. They are far more likely to participate in sports than non-paying mobile gamers. Even more appealing from a marketing perspective is the fact that a huge amount of these Big Spenders are also tuning into sporting events on television or online. For example, 41% of Big Spenders watch Tennis compared to 19% of non-paying mobile gamers. Considering that a third of Big Spenders in the US watch American football, Supercell’s estimated $9 million investment in this year’s Superbowl ad for Clash of Clans doesn’t seem so crazy.

But it’s the information about who these whales are and how they spend their money that’s most intriguing. 67% of big spenders are men, aged 21-35. More than that, they spend big cross platforms with 71% of them also spending big on console and 69% going large on PC, too. It’s no wonder a game like Fallout Shelter did so well – it appealed to that core audience of male big spenders and raked in all the cash.

Can we please stop thinking of mobile gaming as something inferior done by middle aged women, now? Sure, plenty of women also play mobile games, and plenty of people spend money on gaming across all platforms, but when it comes to the biggest whales, that honour clearly goes to the hard-core male gamers.

Last Updated: November 18, 2015

59 Comments

  1. Alien Emperor Trevor

    November 18, 2015 at 13:32

    So we should start calling them filthy rich casuals? O_o

    Reply

    • miaau

      November 18, 2015 at 13:43

      You what I do not get? Is the amount of young people (25 to 30) driving brand new luxury cars. That I do not get. I have never understood. Is the house sacrificed for the car? or do I just severely underestimate how much some young people are paid?

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        November 18, 2015 at 13:46

        A lot of people finance their lifestyle with debt. I’ve known a few. All it takes is one or two small things going wrong and all that debt comes back to bite them.

        Reply

        • Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

          November 18, 2015 at 13:46

        • miaau

          November 18, 2015 at 13:50

          I am buying a car now, but no car payment. From home loan, I find that easier to manage. BUT if you do that, YOU MUST be putting in a fair bit more into the homeloan than the minimum amount, else it costs a crap load more.

          I want 1 debt item. House or houses.

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            November 18, 2015 at 14:16

            I delayed buying a new car for quite some time. Allowed me to save up a nice deposit to reduce the monthly payments, and those are mostly covered by things like much reduced fuel consumption & switching to cheaper medical aid plan. Hardly any impact on my life. Even went with a full maintenance plan & fixed installment. Makes it so easy to budget. And I don’t have to worry about interest rate changes.

          • miaau

            November 18, 2015 at 14:47

            sensible and logical.

          • Cyberats

            November 20, 2015 at 02:10

            New cars are a rip-off, buy a used car & “new car” scent for life.

        • HvR

          November 18, 2015 at 13:55

          Jip scary how many people’s budget is salary > debt repayment

          Reply

        • RinceThis

          November 18, 2015 at 13:56

          Ain’t that the truth.

          Reply

        • Captain JJ the Goo

          November 18, 2015 at 13:57

          Oh yes. You’re on to it right there.
          Sucks to be the guy who’s not as fancy as they are, but it’s nice to be able to tell yourself that you’re actually better off.

          Reply

      • Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

        November 18, 2015 at 13:56

        Check the house first, then you will know

        Reply

      • Nikola

        November 18, 2015 at 14:36

        Hmmm I am guilty of that LOL!! not going to lie but I love my car hahaha!

        Reply

    • Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

      November 18, 2015 at 13:45

  2. Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

    November 18, 2015 at 13:45

  3. Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

    November 18, 2015 at 13:45

    • miaau

      November 18, 2015 at 13:48

      just. wow.

      Reply

  4. Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

    November 18, 2015 at 13:45

  5. Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

    November 18, 2015 at 13:45

    • David Weatherhead

      November 18, 2015 at 14:22

      What makes that image even better is that it is a Sperm Whale 😛

      Reply

  6. Generic ZA

    November 18, 2015 at 13:46

    Couldn’t decide if title was reference to players physique or fiscal status … but now that you made me look here’s a whale for you.

    Reply

  7. RinceThis

    November 18, 2015 at 13:49

    Is it perhaps because they are so big they can’t move?

    Reply

  8. RinceThis

    November 18, 2015 at 13:51

    In the end those whales come back and bite you in the arse… http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2013/07/OHYOUfy.gif

    Reply

  9. HvR

    November 18, 2015 at 13:52

  10. Captain JJ the Goo

    November 18, 2015 at 13:55

    I don’t account for a part of that. 😀
    I AM NOT A SHEEP!

    Reply

    • Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

      November 18, 2015 at 13:58

      Nope, you are an LB

      Reply

      • Captain JJ the Goo

        November 18, 2015 at 13:58

        Still not a sheep!
        o/

        Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        November 18, 2015 at 14:00

        Lucky bastard?

        Reply

        • Captain JJ the Goo

          November 18, 2015 at 14:00

          Lovely Browman 😀 :/

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            November 18, 2015 at 14:00

            You do it to yourself.

          • Captain JJ the Goo

            November 18, 2015 at 14:02

            I really should see someone about it.

          • Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

            November 18, 2015 at 14:09

            He is just deflecting from the deeper trolling, he is choosing the lesser, one day, when (not if) he screws up, there shall be lolz

    • RinceThis

      November 18, 2015 at 14:10

      He says with the white picket fence and wife teheheh *run

      Reply

      • Captain JJ the Goo

        November 18, 2015 at 14:20

        My fence is beige!

        Reply

        • RinceThis

          November 18, 2015 at 14:23

          0_O Damn, a sheep from the 60’s hahaha

          Reply

          • Captain JJ the Goo

            November 18, 2015 at 14:25

            Exactly. Cryogenically frozen and stored in a Vault only to emerge when you mutants have taken control!

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            November 18, 2015 at 14:37

            Retro!

  11. The Sten

    November 18, 2015 at 14:00

    Idiots come in all shapes, sizes and genders

    Reply

  12. HvR

    November 18, 2015 at 14:01

    Whale bubble market just waiting to burst

    https://media.giphy.com/media/14pdHYq0Wu0CEo/giphy.gif

    Reply

    • Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

      November 18, 2015 at 14:05

      It wasn’t random, it was orca-strated

      Reply

    • Grand Admiral Chief SpaceNinja

      November 18, 2015 at 14:05

      THAR SHE BLOWS

      Reply

  13. BakedBagel

    November 18, 2015 at 14:12

    Sample size per country approx. 2,000 respondents. 3,000 for US

    http://www.newzoo.com/methodology-consumer-research/

    Olay, seeing how big gaming is, (including mobile) Is 2000 people per country a big enough sample size?

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the Goo

      November 18, 2015 at 14:21

      3000 for the US is already tiny. That’s like 60 people per state.

      Reply

      • BakedBagel

        November 18, 2015 at 14:41

        I see there are over 35,000 invite only respondents compare that to the entire gaming demographic. It’s better than those 20 people studies tho.

        Reply

        • Captain JJ the Goo

          November 18, 2015 at 14:41

          True.

          Reply

  14. oVg

    November 18, 2015 at 14:51

    I bet they are all married men.

    Reply

    • Captain JJ the Goo

      November 18, 2015 at 15:17

      I take offense!
      I would never touch that casual garbage!

      Reply

      • oVg

        November 18, 2015 at 15:20

        You are one of the lucky ones who found the perfect girl. Otherwise you would be forced to play your games on a second screen while the wife watches Isidingo 😛

        Reply

        • Captain JJ the Goo

          November 18, 2015 at 15:23

          Oh shit. Not Isidingo! Well, considering I live in the Northern Suburbs, it could’ve been 7de Laan. :/

          This is true though. I am lucky. 😀

          Reply

  15. Cyberats

    November 20, 2015 at 02:11

    Better come up with a backpack multi-processor Xeon Server, soon.

    Reply

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