Reports: Games

Browse all of our reports, featuring our analysts' expert insights and analysis of audience segmentation, emerging trends and technologies, value chains, market shares, predictions and more – backed by our proprietary survey data and bespoke models & forecasts. Become a subscriber to get new ones every month, or just pick one to get started.

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MIDiA Research Predictions 2018
Post-Peak Economics

Karol Severin, Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

4 Dec 2017

Apple Spotify Amazon

In this report MIDiA Research analysts present their predictions for what will be the big trends in digital media and tech across music, video, media in 2018. Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Apple Music, Candy Crush...

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Games Video Viewing
Broader Propositions Will Increase Mainstream Adoption

Karol Severin

22 Nov 2017

games video gaming video gamer video

Games related video viewing is a relatively new but vibrant marketplace. It has multiple use cases across the gamer segments: from newbies watching walkthroughs, to hard core fans viewing an e-sports event online. Though currently still a niche activity among gamers overall, it has a mainstream penetration of 54% among 16-24 year old males.

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Rovio’s Pre-IPO Health Check

Karol Severin

18 Oct 2017

rovio Angry Birds Angry Birds 2

Rovio, the publisher of Angry Birds, announced it would go public in October 2017 via NASDAQ Helsinki. The company is beyond its user growth peak, but is midway through a company turn around in terms of revenues and profitability. The company has IPOed as a profitable and revenue (rather than user growth) – oriented enterprise, willing to pay div...

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Going Beyond Sync
Mutually Beneficial Opportunities in Music And Games

Karol Severin

21 Sep 2017

Music behaviour music services playlisting

There is a significant behavioural and demographic overlap between gamers and music consumers. An affinity for music, adoption of subscription services, attendance of live music events, merchandise sales and following celebrities on social media, are just a few of the many indicators in which gamers over-index, compared to average consumers.

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Quarterly Digital Content Trends
Q2 2017

Mark Mulligan

31 Aug 2017

Streaming Streaming Music US

In this report, we present highlights of content trends from MIDiA’s Quarterly Brand Tracker, a survey fielded in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. This report explores how consumer behaviour evolved between Q4 2016 and Q2 2017 across music, video, games and social.

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Game Consumer Segmentation
Aficionados Drive Adoption

Karol Severin

27 Jul 2017

passive majority consumer segmentation forgotten fans

Barriers between the traditionally isolated PC, console and mobile games formats are gradually breaking down. This is happening on the device level (Nintendo Switch), title level (e.g. multiplatform Minecraft gameplay), the development level (Unity) and the corporate level (Console gaming companies buying their way into mobile and vice versa).

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Mapping Daily Active Gamers Across Platforms
Diversity Is The Name Of The Game

Karol Severin

13 Jun 2017

Xbox Facebook PlayStation

The Daily Active User (DAU) is a common engagement metric, often used in gauging companies’ performance and value. In gaming, DAUs vary markedly across mobile, PC, console and social. The differences are seen in penetration rates, demographics, engagement and spending trends.

Call Of Duty Fan Profile
Hardcore Gamers Become Video Fans

Karol Severin

1 Jun 2017

aaa title fans triple a title fans Call of Duty

Though Call of Duty (CoD) fans show similar behaviours to the fans of other AAA Games titles, demographically they more closely resemble hard-core gamers. What is more, the amount of time they spend gaming causes them to under-index certain non-game, mainstream digital activities like mobile messaging.

Grand Theft Auto Fan Profile
The Mainstream Hardcore Gamers

Karol Severin

16 May 2017

YouTube Deezer Apple Music

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is among the most popular console game title franchises in the market. Despite the controversy, the brand has managed to establish a solid fan foothold across genders and ages. GTA fans are digitally sophisticated and engaged users (albeit under-indexing in messaging app usage) with a strong affinity for online video and for ...

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State Of Freemium Games Q1 2017
A Comprehensive Assessment Of Freemium Game Dynamics In The Top 100 Grossing Charts

Karol Severin

28 Apr 2017

Apple Freemium google play

The sheer importance and popularity of freemium games in the app economy is evident across the globe as they capture the lion’s share of both the top 100 grossing overall charts, as well as gaming charts globally. But behind the global popularity of freemium games are individual regions at various levels of market maturity, platform penetrations,...

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The Emergence Of The Always On Gamer
Profiling Console Owners

Karol Severin

30 Mar 2017

Apple Google Apple TV

The game console owner segment is evolving fast. Still relatively young for now, console game fans are both aging and heading towards truly mainstream demographic distribution. Simultaneously, console subscription models are gaining traction, migrating premium physical software budgets into digital spend.

Mobile Gamer User Profile
Mobile Is The Unifying Factor For Gamers

Karol Severin

22 Feb 2017

Spotify YouTube Deezer

Whatever your digital content proposition, mobile gamers comprise a significant share of your user base. The segment is not only important due to its sheer size and app economy value, but also because it straddles otherwise diverse components of the digital entertainment landscape, be it video, music, or messaging.

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Over 50 And Mobile
Profiling The Underserved Older Mobile Consumer

Karol Severin

22 Dec 2016

mobile behaviour 50+ segment 50 year old

The over 50 segment has been one of the most neglected during the rise of mobile platforms, social media and digital entertainment. The neglect is understandable considering their well-earned reputation for being more tech cautious. This will all change, though not overnight, as younger digitally savvy consumers age.

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Next Generation Apps
The Rise Of Mobile Life Ecosystems

Karol Severin

30 Nov 2016

app economy next generation apps mobile life ecosystems

The world of mobile is undergoing a seismic shift. It used to be that the smartphone platform world was largely understood in terms of a couple of big operating systems (iOS and Android) and their respective app stores. But now a succession of apps have emerged as platforms that exist both within and across OS boundaries.

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MIDiA Research Predictions 2017
The Year Of The Platform

Karol Severin, Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan and Zach Fuller

30 Nov 2016

Streaming Streaming Music Paid Content

As we correctly predicted, 2016 was the year video ate the world. 2017 is going to be shaped by the battle for consumer attention through formatting and distribution wars. VR is likely to cede further ground to AR, bots will become established, while messaging apps add to their dominant position (even though user growth will slow).

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Pokémon Go User Deep Dive
Life After The Hype

Karol Severin

30 Sep 2016

pokemon go pokemon niantic

With over 100 million downloads and 20 million daily active users, Pokémon Go has taken the digital world by storm. Although the initial hype is inevitably becoming grounded by reality, Pokémon Go is still performing strongly. Although niche by overall digital measures, the Pokémon Go player user base has a sizeable foothold, and behavioural tra...

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Music in Virtual Reality
An Opportunity To Fill The Content Void

Zach Fuller

30 Sep 2016

music industry music videos virtual reality

A transformational technology in need of a meaningful content offering meets a wounded industry looking to new revenue streams. Despite their obvious differences, music (as one of the first and most vigorously disrupted mediums by the internet), and Virtual Reality (as a poster-child of technology’s brave new world), could yet prove natural allie...

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Candy Crush, Clash Of Clans And The Future Of Mobile Games
From Silos To Ecosystems

Karol Severin

22 Aug 2016

mobile games clash of clans freemium games

Though mobile games differ largely by genre, demographics and business models, most share the status of social connector and cultural identifier. Much like music companies, mobile gaming companies often struggle with conversion to payment as well as a regular production of hits to retain momentum in the long term.

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VR Vendor Landscape
Virtual Reality’s Path to Mainstream Entertainment

Zach Fuller

31 Jul 2016

technology adoption VR VR gaming

VR’s renaissance has an edge on other technologies: romance. Experiences in virtual reality are being evangelised less as entertainment than as a new era of humanity, giving users previously inconceivable levels of exploration in a safe and inconsequential environment.

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App Store Economics
Games Still Dominate But Charts Now Only Tell Part Of The Story

Karol Severin

30 Jun 2016

app store app economy app charts

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