The Social Gaming Revolution: Why it’s the New Face of Entertainment

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Have you ever bought buildings for your virtual city or seeds for your online farm? If you have, you’re in good company—it turns out that, on average, players spend about $5 every month on social gaming.

Technavio has just released a new market research report on the global social gaming market that’s full of other surprising facts about why social gaming is here to stay.

The gaming industry has moved from PC and consoles to social gaming, which has boosted the number of users to more than 200 million. According Technavio analysts, the ability to compete with friends and the emergence of social gaming tournaments will help the market generate a revenue of more than $18 billion by 2019.

How do social games monetize?

Analysts indicate that although Facebook’s dominance has been a key driver for the social gaming market, revenue from virtual items and advertising is expected to fuel the market growth over the next few years. Technavio anticipates that by 2025, virtual goods will account for 80% of the market share.

What are the top social games on Facebook?

The chart below lists the most popular Facebook games in 2015, based on monthly active users. Candy Crush Saga developed by King is still one of the top grossing iOS gaming apps with close to US $1 million in daily revenue.

Technavio’s report predicts that social networks will remain a top platform for gaming and will spur the growth of hardcore social gaming groups by the end of 2019. New trends like wearable gaming hardware devices, including headwear, body wear, eyewear and smartwatches, will diversify the growth of this industry.

To learn more about the social gaming market, check out the following reports: