A six-month investigation of mobile game installations, in-app purchases, and game deletions.
Last year's #2 download was "casual games," this year it's "augmented reality games."

The release of Pokémon Go ushered in augmented reality (AR) as a gaming genre. Existing online PC game companies have released a slew of new titles based on IP, and simple Flash games and HTML5 games are also flooding the market.

What impact do various game genres have on users? Digieco released a report on mobile game usage behavior on Wednesday, the 10th. The study was conducted online over seven days, with 277 participants from the DMC Panel (male and female, ages 19 to 49), operated by DMC Media for research purposes, who had played mobile games within the past six months.



Average number of downloads: 4, with the most active downloads coming from those in their 30s.

When asked, "Have you downloaded a mobile game in the past six months?" 97.1% (or 9.7 out of 10) answered "yes." The highest number of downloads was "1-3," at 62.8%, followed by "4-6," at 18.8%. The average number of downloads was four, with those in their 30s being the most active.

When downloading mobile games, the factors to consider were preferred game genre, usage by nearby users, and app market/store rankings. Compared to the results of last year's survey, the degree to which preferred game genres, the degree to which people around them play them, game-related social media ratings and reviews, and the degree to which they consider rewards (cash, emoticons, etc.) increased, while the degree to which they consider whether the game app is free or paid, the game price, and the preferred game image decreased.

Brain/puzzle/board games currently rank first among mobile games installed, followed by augmented reality (AR) games in second place. AR games have overtaken casual games, which ranked second last year. When asked about the most popular game, AR games were the most popular choice.

29% of people have experienced game deletion, a sharp 53.1% decrease from last year.

Regarding in-app purchases in mobile games, 37.5% of respondents reported making a purchase. This was primarily women, who purchased items or characters to instantly acquire them and achieve faster leveling. The average purchase amount was between 1,000 and 3,000 won, with arcade/RPG games being the most popular genre for character and item purchases.

Those who did not purchase the game said, "I don't feel the need to invest because it's just a way to kill time," and "I can still progress through the game without purchasing it."

As mentioned earlier, the average number of mobile game downloads over the past six months was four. When asked, "Have you ever deleted a mobile game?", 29% answered "yes," deleting an average of 1.2 games. This represents a sharp 53.1% decrease from last year, when 82.1% said they had deleted a game. This suggests that as the mobile game market matures, more people are downloading games they intend to continue playing.