TikTok says it’s the #1 platform where gamers between the ages of 18 and 24 find new mobile games to play. And it apparently hopes to leverage that position, because in partnership with the National Research Group (aka NRG, but not the other gaming-related NRG), it’s put together a report showing mobile game companies and marketers how valuable it thinks it can be to them.
“The mobile gaming industry is undergoing a significant transformation, characterized by a diversification of player demographics and an intensifying competition for downloads,” TikTok says at the start of its report. “In the fast-paced world of mobile gaming, understanding the behaviors of Modern Gamers and leveraging platforms like TikTok can be the key to success for marketers.”
The report, which brings together four years of data from consumers ages 18-64 in nine different countries, found that half of “modern gamers”–people who play at least seven hours of mobile games per week–post content about those games on TikTok.
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It also found that over 50% of gamers “believe that it is important for a game to be popular on social media when deciding which game to play.”
Once they’ve tried and like a game, those players tend to do good things for the developer: along with the aforementioned posting of content, they’re twice as likely than your average person to recommend the game to other people (especially if they find it “culturally relevant”), and are 1.6 times more likely than your average person to “demonstrate loyalty to specific brands or franchises,” per the report.
That loyalty is demonstrated with dollars. TikTok and NRG report that mobile gaming is a $103 billion global business, with the average U.S.-based mobile gamer spending $17 per month on games. Established gamers (people who were regularly playing mobile games pre-pandemic) spend even more, around $26 per month.
Mobile game players are also 84% more likely than your average person to be watching at least 20 hours of streaming content per week, the report says.
So, as TikTok presents it, advertising your mobile game on the platform could result in more social chatter, which results in more downloads, more content watched, and more money spent.
You can see TikTok and NRG’s complete report here. We do think it’s worth noting that game developers already recognize the power of digital platforms and digital creators: mobile games like Raid: Shadow Legends, Honkai: Star Rail, and The Elder Scrolls: Blades have sponsored thousands of videos on YouTube.
