At the SourceDigital13 conference, Flurry CEO Simon Khalaf presented some demographic data about mobile app use that was somewhat surprising. The 25 to 34 age group (a favorite target of advertisers) actually spends less time on games than older adults. “Given the popularity of game apps you might expect that Millennials drive that usage,” said Khalaf, “but in fact they under-index for game app usage. It turns out that it’s the middle-aged Gen X-ers who grew up with gaming consoles who are over indexing on games.”
Instead, the millennials are spending time with Sports, Health and Fitness apps (which are particularly popular with women); music, media and entertainment apps; and lifestyle and shopping apps (also popular with women).
The takeaway for the mobile development industry is that creating games isn’t necessarily the best way to attract the kind of users that interest advertisers.
