1）SuperData最近数据显示，3月份美国数字游戏销售额达8.75亿美元，同比去年仅增长1.1%。

社交游戏用户流失是其中最主要的原因，其月活跃用户首次在一年内跌至2亿以下，同比比上年减少了1000万。不过社交游戏付费用户转化率以及每用户平均收益却有所上升，3月份社交游戏领域总收益为1.24亿美元。

基于订阅模式的MMO在3月份注册用户达28.9万，但总收益仍相对持平（约8600万美元）。免费MMO发展较为健康，3月份新增300万玩家，其收益增长至1.95亿美元。

移动、可下载PC以及主机游戏在数字领域发展最为迅速，一定程度上抵消了社交游戏和MMO表现不利的情况。

移动游戏3月份在美国收益达1.57亿美元，同比上年增长7%；而PC平台的DLC和主机游戏销售额同比增长19%，达到3.12亿美元；总体来看，数字PC和主机游戏销售额同比上年增长9%。

2）据福布斯报道，芬兰开发商Supercell最近宣布2013年第一季度收益达1.79亿美元，超过了2012全年收益1亿美元。该季度Supercell扣除开支和苹果30%抽成之后的净收益为1.04亿美元。

Supercell目前日收益达240万美元，拥有每天平均玩10次游戏的850万日活跃用户。该公司当前估值已超过8亿美元，预计到今年底将达10亿美元，超过整个EA移动游戏部门的两倍。

3）据pocketgamer报道，中国手机游戏公司CocoaChina最近数据显示，尽管Google Play并未入驻中国，但各种运营商及其他第三方平台推出的Android应用商店已占据80%的中国手机游戏市场份额，而苹果iOS则仅占比20%。

Android游戏市场份额同比上季度增长100%，CocoaChina认为目前位居前列的Android游戏月收益约500万美元。

虽然iOS在中国发展减缓，并且安装基数不大，但由于iOS用户价值更高，中国排名前列的iOS游戏月收益应该超过了300万美元。

4）据Techcrunch报道，谷歌最近发布与Compete联合推出的调查报告显示，美国用户购买智能手机时最关注的是品牌和价格，其次才是运营商等因素。

2013年3月有66%受访者称去年购买手机时曾考虑至少两种机型，这一比例比2011年下降了9%。

至于运营商服务方面，有47%用户至少考虑过两家运营商，这一比例比2011年增长了134%。换句话说，运营商正在逐渐丧失智能手机市场的品牌主动权。有30%用户更换手机时也会变换运营商，其比例上升了39%。

调查还发现，年轻用户群体对价格较不敏感，在18-34岁群体中，有62%去年在手机上的消费超过100美元。

5）App Annie最近发布数据显示，2013年第一季度iOS应用收益仍然领先于Google Play，但两者收益差距有所减小，iOS收益比后者多2.6倍（游戏邦注：在2012年11月，iOS收益是Google Play的4倍）。

苹果App Store收益同比上季度增长25%，而Google Play则增长约90%。

中国市场是苹果App Store增长率的主要贡献力量，位居iOS下载量市场第2名，收益市场第4名。

英国、日本、美国和中国占据半数iOS下载量，美国和日本则占据半数iOS收益。

App Store有40%下载量来自游戏，游戏在iOS应用下载量中位居榜首，在iOS应用收益中同样名列第一（占比70%）。

从Google Play下载量来看，美国市场位居第一，美国、俄罗斯、印度、韩国下载量占比50%；从收益来看，日本名列第一，日本和韩国、美国在Google Play收益中占比高达70%。

值得注意的是，在日本Google Play中，游戏收益占比超过90%，韩国Google Play的游戏收益也高达95%。

在Google Play平台，游戏所占下载量达40%，收益占比80%。

6）据Mobile World Live报道，谷歌董事会主席Eric Schmidt最近宣布，Android用户将在未来9个月中突破10亿大关。

目前Android设备用户已超过7.5亿，每日激活量达150万。

据其所称，由于设备价格下降等因素，Android在新兴市场（尤其是亚洲）还有巨大发展潜力。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Social games’ decline is holding digital market back – report

By Mike Rose

Although March saw strong sales of downloadable titles, DLC and mobile games in the U.S., the overall digital sales market was offset by the decline in social games and MMO subscribers.

Figures from metrics tracking firm SuperData show that digital game sales in the U.S. were $875 million for March, up only a “modest” 1.1 percent year-over-year.

The social games decline was mainly to blame, as the total number of monthly active social gamers dropped below 200 million for the first time in over a year, down by 10 million users year-over-year.

However, SuperData noted that conversion rates and figures for the average revenue per user were actually up year-over-year, suggesting that it is the less-committed players who are dropping off. Overall, the social games segment reached a new low of $124 million in total revenue for March.

The firm also mentioned the retirement of a number of EA’s biggest Facebook games, stating that the loss of interest in social games by major publishers is being offset somewhat by smaller and medium-sized developers.

The highs and lows of MMOs

Subscription-based MMOs continued to take a hit in March, with an estimated 289,000 subscribers lost across all pay-to-play MMOs — although overall revenues remained relatively even at $86 million.

However, free-to-play MMOs are looking healthier in comparison. An additional 3 million players were picked up in free-to-play MMOs in March, while monetization in these MMOs saw a slight improvement year-over-year, causing overall revenues to grow to $195 million.

SuperData says that newer titles like Hawken, Strike Suit Zero and MechWarrior Online are helping the overall MMO market to maintain its health.

Mobile and download

The mobile and downloadable PC and console games sectors were where the digital sector picked up the pace, and offset the social games and MMO decreases.

Year-over-year mobile game revenues in the U.S. were up 7 percent during March, to $157 million total. Elsewhere, DLC sales on PC and console were up 19 percent year-over-year, to $312
million.

Overall, digital PC and console sales were up 9 percent year-over-year, thanks to strong DLC sales, and some big-name releases including BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider.（source：
gamasutra）

2）Supercell’s latest reported revenue figures are ridiculously huge

By Kris Ligman

Helsinki-based mobile game developer Supercell, whose games include tower defense title Clash of Clans and social farming game Hay Day, has released a more complete picture of its impressive financial situation.

As reported in Forbes, Supercell has already surpassed its 2012 revenues of $100 million, with $179 million in first quarter 2013. The company netted $104 million during the quarter, after
expenses and Apple’s 30 percent cut of sales.

The growth curve steepens: With daily revenue now at $2.4 million, Supercell is already at a run-rate of more than $800 million for 2013 and could reach $1 billion. That would make it more
than twice the size of Electronic Arts’ mobile games division, which has 900-plus iOS apps. Supercell now attracts 8.5 million daily players who play an average of ten times per day.（source：gamasutra）

3）Chart of the Week: How Android’s mobile app revenues are killing iOS in China

by Jon Jordan

The time when iOS ruled the roost in China now seems long ago.

As smartphone adoption has taken off in the country, it’s been Android that’s seen the hockey stick growth.

And despite the absence of Google Play as a market place, it’s also Android that been driving Chinese revenues when it comes to mobile games.

All the stores

According to key publisher, developer and tools outfit CocoaChina, the various flavours of Android store – split between the powerful carriers and a range of other aggregators – account for 80 percent of the market.

Worth $250 million (1.5 billion RMB in 2012), the Chinese mobile games market is predicted to rise to $1.3 billion (8 billion RMB) in 2013.

Indeed, with Android currently experiencing 100 percent quarter-on-quarter growth, CocoaChina reckons the top grossing Android games are now generating around $5 million per month.

And there is some good news for Apple fans, too.

Despite its lower growth and install base, thanks to the higher worth of iOS owners, the top games on the platform should be making more than $3 million a month in China.（source：pocketgamer）

4）With Smartphones, Consumers Think Brand And Price First, Carriers Second, Finds Compete/Google Research

Ingrid Lunden

The growth in smartphone usage — supported by ever-faster mobile network speeds — is also giving rise to a much more competitive landscape among carriers, handset makers and other phone retailers targeting consumers on the hunt for new devices. Google today is releasing a report it compiled in partnership with Compete to show how that is playing out in one market in particular, the U.S. It shows that while carriers may still hold the key to making a call or getting online with a smartphone, when it comes to buying one, carriers are taking a backseat as users seek out brands and best prices first, with carriers as the follow-up to that.

Here is the graphic from Google’s report that spells out how the retail landscape is changing:

Google notes that while we are still seeing some competition among handsets, it’s on the decline. Some 66% of users surveyed in March 2013 noted that they considered 2 or more handsets when buying their last device in the past year. That number, however, is down by 9% over 2011.

This speaks to the continuing consolidation we’re seeing in overall smartphone rankings, where brands like Samsung and Apple increasingly dominate in sales, to the detriment of companies like Nokia, HTC, RIM and others. (These figures out earlier this month from Kantar Worldpanel put iOS and Android sales at nearly 93% of all smartphone sales in the U.S. in the last three
months, with Samsung very much the biggest of the Android OEMs.)

But look over to the next graphic and you can see quite the opposite trend. When it comes to considering carriers, some 47% of users are these days considering more than one, with that number up by 134%: in other words, carriers are gradually losing their brand grip. And I’d hazard to guess that carriers come into the equation with a heavy price rider: with those offering the best deals getting more attention if a user isn’t locked into a plan elsewhere. That’s further demonstrated by the fact that these days, 30% of consumers switch carriers when they’re upgrading, a rise of 39%.

Although a lot of people made a big deal about users switching to Verizon when it finally started to carry the iPhone in 2011, after years of exclusivity on AT&T’s (less good quality, they
argued) network, the Google/Compete numbers seem to tell a slightly different story: It found that one-third of buyers select phones first, and carriers second, with 25% of those purchasing devices in the last year doing so because they wanted the “latest and greatest.” So much for network quality. Meanwhile, upgrade eligibility, which ties users in to signing with the same carrier, only motivated 9% of purchases.

Indeed, there are other signs that many of the stronger controls by carriers are on the wane. T-Mobile’s big marketing push in the U.S. as the “Un-carrier” plays testament to that, as do services like Three in the UK, which lets users sign up to smartphone tariffs on rolling, monthly contracts. (Yes, you can argue as Darrell has that these are more marketing tactics, with
the user getting billed one way or the other; but all the same tariffs that further decouple phone services from contracts are on the rise.)

Among its other findings — unsurprisingly highlighted by a company that makes the bulk of its revenues from digital advertising — Google said it found that 80% of all mobile phone shoppers research for their handsets online, although the majority (61%) of sales are still completed in physical stores, with another 4% on the phone. It also found that the trend for  content consumption is also being echoed in mobile device shopping habits: the number of those using mobile handsets and tablets to look up info about mobile phones has tripled; with one-third taking that browsing into stores themselves. That’s also seen a rise in video usage too, with those browsing for phones online including 30 minutes or more of video-watching as part of their research.

As with other kinds of technology, younger demographics are proving to be the least price sensitive: 62% of 18-34 year-olds spent over $100 on phone purchases last year, Google notes.（source：techcrunch）

5）Google Play now at 90% of iOS app store downloads; iOS still holds a 2.6X revenue lead

John Koetsier

San Francisco, CA Early Bird Tickets on Sale Google Play is quickly catching up to Apple’s App Store, both in download numbers and in revenue.

In November 2012, Apple’s iOS App Store took in four times the revenue of Google Play. In the first quarter of 2013, iOS app revenue still led, but by a lower multiple: 2.6 times as much.

And Google Play, once just a fraction of the iOS App Store’s size, now accounts for almost the same number of downloads.

Those are just a few of the insights from app analytics company App Annie’s latest market index, which also reveal the best locations and categories in which app developers can maximize revenue.

Source: App Annie

Google Play downloads catching up to iOS app store downloads

Apple’s App Store is still growing, and growing fast, with quarterly revenues up 25 percent. The difference is simply that Google Play is growing incredibly fast.

“While the iOS App Store and Google Play both had solid gains in app downloads last quarter, Google Play had a higher percentage growth rate as well as a greater gain in absolute downloads,” the report says. “From Q4 2012 to Q1 2013, iOS App Store quarterly revenue grew by roughly one ­quarter. Meanwhile, Google Play app revenue grew by roughly 90 percent.”

iOS App Store

Interestingly, in the iOS App Store, China was the leading contributor to Apple’s 25 percent growth rate in downloads; it hit the number two spot in downloads by country and the number
spot in terms of revenue by country:

Taken together, the UK, Japan, U.S., and China account for about half of all iOS downloads, App Annie says. And the U.S. and Japan account for half of all iOS revenue.

Games drive about 40 percent of iOS App Store downloads, holding down the top spot, and 70 percent of revenue. Gainers in downloads include the photo and video category, which just broke into the top three this quarter, and gainers in revenue included the education category, which jumped a spot this quarter.

Google Play

The picture is considerably different for Google Play, where Russia, India, South Korea, and the U.S. drove 50 percent of all downloads. Russia has been rising steadily in the ranks, according to App Annie, as Android makes inroads there.

And Asia owns Google Play in terms of revenue, with Japan moving ahead of the U.S. last quarter, and South Korea joining it this quarter. Those countries, with the U.S., represent a staggering 70 percent of all Google Play revenue, which is why Google Play’s top publishers by revenue read like a who’s-who of Japan and Korea.

Also interesting: In Japan, the games category accounts for over 90 percent of Google Play revenues. And in Korea, games is responsible for a massive 95 percent of income.

In Google Play, games are about 40 percent of all downloads and account for 80 percent of all revenue. In other words, “Google Play” is very well named indeed.

With all that data taken into account, the perfectly optimized app for iOS revenue is a game targeted at the U.S. and UK, with Japan if possible. And the perfectly optimized app for Google

Play revenue is also a game, but targeted at Japan and South Korea, with the U.S. and UK thrown in if possible.（source：venturebeat）

6）Android to smash one billion user barrier

by Daniel Gumble

Two billion users expected within the next two years.

Android could soon be boasting more than one million users within the next six-nine months, according to Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt, who also said that the two million mark could be met “within a year or two,” Mobile World Live has reported.

The recent D:Dive into Mobile event saw Schmidt state that there are now over 750 million Android devices in use today, and that there are and additional 1.5 million activations every day.

Schmidt also suggested that there is significant potential for the platform in emerging markets, “especially as prices fall.”

Commenting on the rapid speed with which new technology reaches the market, and the subsequent drop in prices for previously cutting-edge features, he noted that Android’s growth in emerging markets will be supported by the arrival “a new generation of very low-cost Android phone manufacturers… primarily from Asia.”

“A relatively inexpensive smartphone with a strong and good browser is sort of what you need to access the world’s information. That’s what people need, that’s what they are going to get,” Schmidt added.（source：mobile-ent）