Mobile gamers are spending less time playing, but paying more

Gamers are spending less time and more money on mobile games. The three main reasons are: there are no more new hits, more people want to watch other people play games through eSports, and gamers pay to reach new levels instead of grinding their way through them.

The top mobile games in 2015 are the same games on the same ranks in 2012. And this is becoming unhealthy for the mobile gaming industry. Analysts found that gamers are spending less time playing mobile games in 2015 than in 2014.

People spend 32 percent of their time on mobile devices playing games last year. This year, that number dropped to 15 percent. That is a decline to only 33 minutes in this year from 52 minutes last year.

One of the major reasons is the lack of new hits. This is not a good sign since hits are very important for the gaming industry to flourish. More users are opting to watch other people play the game, instead of play it.

This new activity of watching other people play the mobile games is called eSports. More and more gamers are buying their way into getting to higher levels in games, instead of playing their way skilfully through them.

This is the major reason why gamers are spending less time but more money on games.

Meanwhile, in-game purchases on mobile devices are expected to reach a total of $23.4 billion globally in 2015. This is an increase from 2014's $21.4 billion.

Meanwhile, mobile gamers in the U.S. are expected to spend some $1.82 billion this year. That is an increase from 2014's $1.51 billion and 2013's $1.12 billion.

Research firm eMarketer Inc. estimates growth of app sales to slow down, predicting that only one-third of tablet and smartphone users in America will buy apps in 2015.