Mobile ‘paid competitive gamers’ are on the rise | Newzoo & MPL

Newzoo and Mobile Premier League (MPL) released a report this week about paid competitive games (PCG). According to the report, this new subsection of mobile games represent a new and growing form of game monetization.

By the report’s definition, PCGs are skill-based mobile games that offer monetary rewards, and players earn those rewards by participating in PvP contests. It’s separate from play-to-earn games, though both categories reward players with monetary prizes. P2E games tend to reward players with cryptocurrency while PCGs offer real money. PGCs account for 7% of the global consumer spending on games, and Newzoo expects it to rise to 14% by 2024.

Notably, PCGs are formatted as ”skill-based” games to distinguish them from gambling.

The report shows that PCG players are more engaged than “traditional” gamers, though it doesn’t specify what platforms they include in their definition “traditional” gamer. They spend an hour more per week on average playing games. Newzoo also reports that 20-58% of players plan to increase their in-game spending in the next one to three years depending on the market.

PCGs are also sticky. While players do churn out of these games for a time (meaning do not play them for at least a month), they usually return within a year.

Among the reports other findings, MPL says that mobile gaming contributes over 50% to global gaming revenue. The report lists the leading publishers of PCGs — which includes MPL and companies such as Skillz and DraftKings.

Newzoo also forecast a dramatic increase in gamers in general, estimating over 3 billion globally by 2024. One source of the increase, it suggests, will be greater access to affordable Android smartphones, predicting the number of global smartphone users will reach 4.8 billion by that same year.