Android games: 2.6 Billion downloads
We recently reported that downloads from Google’s Android Market had topped 10 billion. Google has disclosed that 2.6 billion (or 25.6 %) of those were games, marking it as the largest category of downloads. Other popular app categories included Entertainment (12.2 percent), Tools (11.17 percent), and Communication (6.45 percent).
The most popular genres of game were Arcade & Action (39.25 percent), Brain & Puzzle (22.08 percent), Casual (17.68 percent), Cards (7.31 percent), Racing (7.27 percent), and Sports (6.41 percent). The United States trailed Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea on the download leaderboards, only besting Singapore for a spot in the top five.
As a further sign that the Android app market had begun to mature, Google recently announced that all apps would be required to carry a content rating. The rating levels are All, Pre-teen, Teen and Mature, and will apply to apps and updates. Developers whose apps are currently on the Market will have a period of a few weeks to rate their product before they default to an automatic “Mature” rating.
Apple’s App Store, which is a more closely-regulated platform compared to the Android, implemented mandatory age-based content ratings and parental controls with the introduction of iOS 3.0 in 2009. Google trusts developers to accurately assess and rate their products; however, Google added that “users can notify us if they believe your app is incorrectly rated” by flagging a title as such, and if Google agrees that the rating is inaccurate, the company will re-rate the app according to its own guidelines.”
When not playing the role of composer, director, conductor, playwright, and educator, Mark Steighner slips into his secret identity as a video games journalist and games enthusiast. Mark spent a number of years reviewing games for gamershell.com and contributing to the now-defunct “Eat My Bomb” gamershell podcast. Mark lives in the Pacific Northwest.
