Half of mobile gaming occurs on an iOS device

An International Gamers Survey from NewZoo revealed some interesting information about the portable gaming market. The survey showed that there are 41 million Nintendo DS and DSi gamers, and 40.1 million iOS gamers. That means that Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices nearly match the gamer-base of Nintendo's DS and DSi. Also, Apple captured over 19% of portable game software revenue in 2009, up from 5% in 2008.

Apple's 40.1 million gamers eclipse the 19 million gamers on Sony's PSP. This might explain some of Sony's pejorative ads about iOS if they are really struggling for a demographic that should be theirs. If Apple is offering games as sideline apps to their devices' other functionality, it should be insulting that they are eclipsing the purpose-built PSP.

It's important to note that there was significant overlap between Apple and Nintendo, with 14 million gamers using both brands' devices. It makes sense that someone who had a Nintendo would also choose a phone or music player with gaming in mind. Another important consideration is that iOS gaming is incidental to owning one of the devices. This sounds very obvious, but it means that in a survey, anyone with an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch might have at least tried a game, but a consumer would have to seek out dedicated devices like the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP.

iOS's gaming prowess is no surprise to Apple, which created the Game Center to give a social hub of leaderboards and achievements, much like dedicated devices. They also hired a new games editor to the App Store in April. At the expense of sounding like Chicken Little, it seems difficult for anyone to stand up to the Apple machine. Where's the Google Android-esque 'white knight' for gamers?

source: NewZoo via AppleInsider