Distimo Stat Show 2013 Was a Huge Year for Android Gaming
For years, Apple has been the presumptive leader in mobile gaming, and it's still in pole position. But if global trends in 2013 were any indication, its nearest rival, Google Play, is putting the heat on.
Context & Ripple Effects
Distimo has turned its year-end reports into an annual scoreboard of the iOS-versus-Google Play contest: its 2011 report found iPhone revenue running roughly 4x Android's, and its 2012 follow-up conceded Google Play was growing faster while Apple still brought in far more money. The 2013 edition extends that trajectory into gaming specifically — the category that anchors both stores' economics.
The story travelled unusually widely for a stats roundup, with pickups from Distimo itself, AppleInsider, VentureBeat, Inside Mobile Apps, Mobile Marketing Watch, 9to5Google, pocketgamer.biz and MacDailyNews — a split audience of Apple-lean and Android-lean outlets reading the same numbers through opposite lenses.
First-order effects
- Google Play gains visible momentum in gaming, the highest-monetizing app category, giving Google a stronger pitch to game studios deciding where to launch first; Apple keeps pole position but can no longer claim uncontested leadership on volume trends.
- Distimo's annual report becomes the reference point both ecosystems cite, sharpening competition between measurement firms over whose index defines the market narrative.
Second-order effects
- Game publishers face growing pressure to treat Android as a day-one platform rather than an iOS-first afterthought, shifting marketing and localization budgets toward Google Play's larger global install base.
- Apple's monetization advantage comes under scrutiny: if download share tilts toward Google Play, developers watching revenue-per-user may demand better discovery and payment tooling from Apple to defend its premium.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, mobile gaming consolidates around a two-store duopoly where neither platform dominates every metric — downloads versus revenue — forcing analysts and developers to track both rather than defaulting to iOS as the proxy for the market.
- Regional dynamics loom large: markets where Google Play outships Apple become the swing factor in whether the revenue gap narrows or persists, pushing both stores to compete on emerging-market pricing and carrier billing.
The trend: Mobile gaming is moving from an iOS-led market toward a genuinely contested two-store race, with annual Distimo-style indexes tracking Google Play closing the gap on volume while Apple defends the revenue crown.