Games have held a remarkable 40 month lead over all other categories when it comes to mobile apps. Mobile games have become so popular that even powerhouse console gaming companies such as Nintendo have seen their profits plummet because of them. They’ve given developers the highest ad revenue and have consumed more of a consumer’s time than any other app category. Unfortunately, like all good things, mobile gaming’s reign has come to an end. There’s a new head honcho in app land and its name is social networking.

Social networking apps have grown tremendously in the past year according to Flurry Analytics and now consume as much of a users app time as games and has surpassed games in the amount of ad revenue they generate. Flurry put out a couple charts and statistics to show us just how far social networking apps have come. As you can see from the above chart, in the last three months, Games apps earned 35%, 35% and 36% of total ad revenue in the AppCircle network. Now look at the same three months and you’ll see Social Networking climbed from 24% in February to 25% in March, and then to 37% in April. Flurry reports that this is the first time in their history (starting summer 2010) that any category has ever surpassed Games in ad revenue generated (it’s no wonder Facebook went after Instagram).

When we look at the chart below, we can see Social Networking apps are now neck and neck with Game apps in the amount of time consumers spend in each category. You’ll see the amount of time consumers are spending using apps has increased by 9 minutes overall; Games usage dropped by 4% down to 24 minutes per day; while Social Networking usage has increased by 60% up to 24 minutes per day. That’s a pretty strong increase, and when compared to all other app categories, it’s really the only one growing.

This is some interesting fodder for developers, and they may want to start rethinking what avenue they take when developing a new app. It would appear as if Games have finally leveled off while interest, usage, and monetization in Social Networking apps continues to grow.

For more information and to view Flurry’s complete findings, visit the source link below.

via TechCrunch

• SourceFlurry