Mobile gaming taking off

Mobile phone gaming is taking off, with gamers frequently playing every day for an average of 28 minutes per session, new research has found.

According to a study from Nielsen Entertainment commissioned by Nokia, mobile phone gamers frequently play mobile games, with the vast majority (80 per cent) playing at least once a week and 34 per cent playing every day. The average length of a session is 28 minutes, with India (39 minutes), United States (31 minutes) and Thailand (29 minutes) playing longer than average.

Mobile phone games are played on the move (61 per cent), almost as much as they are played at home (62 per cent). Also, mobile phone gamers are making the most of their idle time with 56 per cent preferring to play while waiting.

Good gameplay (83 per cent), replayability (79 per cent) and game genre (78 per cent) are key motivators when considering which mobile games to purchase. Graphical quality (84 per cent) and using the phone for other purposes while downloading (78 per cent) were found to be the most important features when deciding to play Nokia's next generation mobile games.

When it comes to getting games, over-the-internet (OTI) distribution (34 per cent) is almost as popular as over-the-air (OTA) distribution (45 per cent).