US mobile game spending up 34% to $274 million in November

Superdata has unveiled its US Digital Games Market Update and Rankings for November, and the overall picture is a bright one.

The combined digital games market totalled $1.1 billion in November, up 25 percent from the same month last year.

Superdata says the surge was "a testament to the continued importance of retail game sales" as a 31 percent month-over-month spike in the PC and console DLC segment (worth $325 million) to offset a 17 percent decline in free-to-play MMOGs ($217 million).

Growth was less pronounced in the social and mobile game categories ($169 million), which grew by a few percentage points month-over-month, as King has effectively locked down Facebook - a move which is forcing other publishers "to search for greener pastures".

After a slow start to autumn, mobile games regained their momentum growing 4 percent month-over-month to hit $274 million in total sales.

Compared to November 2012, consumer spending on mobile games is up 34 percent.

Intriguing, Superdata's data show that Apple marketing might wasn't enough to dethrone King and Supercell.

Natural Motion's Clumsy Ninja received a huge boost from Apple for its launch, but failed to claim the top-tier top grossing slot immediately with Candy Crush and Clash of Clans holding strong.

However, it should be noted that Clumsy Ninja isn't really game, more a Tamagotchi-style pet, so it's not a like-for-like comparison.

Superdata notes that, "According to industry sources, both publishers [King and Supercell] have been aggressively buying up users, not in an effort to both expand their customer base but rather to shut out any competitors."

[source: Superdata]