After a decade with our smartphones, mobile consumption has never been higher. Most people today cannot be separated from their smartphones and more industries are now turning their attention to mobile devices. But how do most people consume media and content today, and will it change in the following decade? Let’s find out.
Movies & TV
Netflix is one of the most popular ways to watch movies and television shows. Users can watch content anywhere they have an internet connection but official stats from the media firm have revealed that its users prefer watching on content on their televisions in the long run.
Statistics from Netflix revealed that most customers sign up on either laptops (40%) or mobile devices (30%) rather than televisions (25%) or tablet devices (5%). However, viewing patterns change the longer customers are registered with Netflix. Over a six month period, the 30% of users who registered on a mobile device have dropped to 10%. The percentage of users on a laptop dropped from 40% at sign-up to 15% at six months. Most customers transitioned to a bigger screen as the number of people who registered via television (25%) rose to a whopping 70%.
However, official YouTube stats reveal that over 70% of its users watch content on their smartphone devices while the rest mostly comes from desktop computers and laptops.
Games
In 2018, a poll from mobile strategy agency Tappable found that smartphone devices are now the preferred gaming device. Tappable’s poll queried male and female gamers and found that 42% of the people surveyed preferred gaming on their smartphones while 32% preferred consoles and 26% preferred their PC.
Statistics from WEPC have revealed that the most popular games on Android smartphones devices in 2017 were casual (59.6%), puzzle (57.29%), and arcade (55.6%). The stats also found that around 10% of Android smartphone users enjoyed playing casino games such as mobile slots, many of which are played through casino apps rather than at in-browser online casinos. The type of games least popular on Android devices were family and sports games (0.95% and 0.59%).
Books & Music
There has been worry that print publishing may eventually completely cease due to the rising popularity of e-books and digital reading. However, a recent report from Neilsen revealed that there’s been an increase in the sales of physical books compared to those read on smartphone devices.
Neilsen reported that around 63% of physical book sales come from people under the age of 44 compared to 37% of book sales from those 45 and over. Contrarily, 52% of e-book sales came from people over the age of 45 while the remaining 48% of digital book sales were made by those aged 44 or under. Neilsen’s stats suggest that older people prefer reading on smartphone devices, tablets and e-book readers while younger generations prefer real books.
A similar study from 2017 by Neilsen found that the sales of printed books had risen and the sales of e-books dropped, again suggested that most people prefer reading printed books over e-books.
Meanwhile, music consumption has mostly gone completely digital. Lasy year, IFPI released a report revealing that people listen to around 18 hours of music a week. The IFPI surveyed 34,000 people across 21 countries and found that 89% of respondents use an on-demand streaming service to listen to music.
The report also found that video accounts for around 47% of on-demand music streaming, with YouTube dominating the market. This compares to around 37% who prefer paid audio streaming and 15% who enjoy free audio streaming.
Mobiles: On Or Off?
The statistics laid out above indicate that, aside from gaming, most people still prefer consuming media off their mobiles. However, studies have confirmed that a majority of people still spend hours on their smartphone devices, mostly browsing the internet, interacting with other people and playing games.
With the rise of streaming services, the constant expanding size of mobile phones, and the rise of video game streaming, we may soon see some of these statistics change within the next decade as more people turn to their mobiles.