Nintendo games on your iPhone? Yes, the console game developer known for exclusively creating games for their platforms recently announced plans to start developing mobile games. With the buzz surrounding Nintendo's mobile move, and the gaming industry gathering at E-3, Slice Intelligence decided to look and see if the console-to-mobile trend is helping console game developers freshen their revenue stream.
Data indicates that the mobile pivot is attracting new paying players to traditional console brands like Nintendo, Blizzard, Square Enix and Microsoft. Examples of successful console-to-mobile games can clearly be seen in Microsoft's Minecraft release and Blizzard’s Hearthstone launch. Slice Intelligence found that over 50 percent of the revenue for each game came from mobile purchases over the past year when comparing online mobile and console sales. Minecraft sales are particularly mobile heavy as 60 percent of the game's revenue comes from purchases on Google Play and the App Store.
Crafters don't cross platforms
Data shows that Minecraft’s decision to go mobile is attracting new crafters. The mobile move has been so effective that two-thirds of Minecraft's console and mobile purchasing population picked-up the Pocket Edition. There's minimal crossover between the platforms. Nearly 71 percent of Minecraft's mobile buyers exclusively spend in the handheld version.
Demographic data demonstrates how mobile Minecraft buyers are different than their console counterparts. Over 40 percent of Pocket Edition buyers are women, while two-thirds of console shoppers are men. The one area where console and mobile Minecraft buyers overlap is in the age of the shoppers. Many Minecraft buyers are between the ages of 34-45, suggesting that these shoppers are likely to have kids.
Power players pay for both console and mobile
Blizzard–the developers behind Warcraft and Starcraft–also moved into the mobile market with the 2014 release of Hearthstone. Slice Intelligence found only 19 percent of the game’s purchasing population spends money in both games. These shoppers are the true power players and have spent an average of $279 dollars, which is three times the spending of their counterparts, who only play on mobile or computer.
About this data
With a panel of over 4 million online shoppers, Slice Intelligence gives the most detailed, and accurate digital commerce data available, and is reported daily.
Slice Intelligence is the only service to measure digital commerce directly from the consumer, across all retailers, at the item level, and over time. Our retailer-independent methodology precisely measures commerce as it happens. By extracting detailed information from hundreds of millions of aggregated and anonymized e-receipts, Slice can map the entire Purchase Graph, connecting each and every consumer to all their purchases.
Slice gets its data from e-receipts – not a browser, app or software installed by the end-user – so its measurement reflects comprehensive shopping behavior across multiple devices, over time which are key in an increasingly omnichannel retail world.