Global spending on mobile games falls 5% as high inflation causes market to cool
Summary
Spending on mobile games declined last year as consumers got more frugal with their purchasing decisions in response to rising inflation, according to a report from app analytics firm Data.ai. "We are seeing this major theme emerge of people being more price sensitive and financially more conservative," Lexi Sydow, head of insights at Data.ai, told CNBC, adding that the "biggest hit" to spending on apps was in gaming. The market faces further headwinds in 2023, with recently introduced privacy measures from Apple expected to place greater strain on app makers. Data.ai expects global app spend on games specifically to drop a further 3% to $107 billion this year as a result of decreased disposable income and changes to privacy. Sydow said the effects of Apples privacy measures hadnt yet appeared in the 2022 numbers — with total spend dropping across both iOS and Google Play — but was likely to have a much greater impact this year.