Mobile game revenues jump 61% according to study

Mobile phone users are trying out games in record numbers according to a study done by Telephia, a market research company. Mobile phone game revenues grew by $151 million Dollars in the fourth quarter of 2006 which is 61% higher than the same period in 2005. The study also found that 17.4 million mobile games were downloaded in the quarter, which is up 45% from a year ago.

Demographically there are some interesting facts. Most of the mobile game players, 65% in fact, are women. This trend is also seen in online games where women tend to play smaller and quick arcade-like games. Young professionals make up 40% of mobile phone game players.

Customers are typically going the convenient route and downloading games from their provider’s portal and Telephia says portal downloads accounted for 74% of the games.

Electronic Arts Mobile leads the pack of mobile game providers with 28% of total revenues while Gameloft and Glu Mobile share second place with 11 percent each.