Days of the holiday mobile game gold rush are fading, says new report

Although this holiday period saw the biggest spike in mobile app and game downloads to date, the rate at which mobile is growing has slowed significantly, according to a new report from Flurry. The analytics company said that while average app download numbers increased by 11 percent during Christmas 2013, this compares with an increase of 90 percent during Christmas 2012. Many consumers now already have a mobile device, suggests Flurry, and therefore the Christmas sales spike wasn't so significant. After analyzing Christmas sales for more than 400,000 apps and games, Flurry's report says that this diminishing holiday boost is just one of many signs that the app and game market on mobile is maturing. "The gold rush days of huge jumps in the overall size of the connected device installed base on Christmas, followed by a dizzying rush of app downloads are fading," the report reads. "Of course, there will still be apps that tap into some vein of consumer interest or amusement and developers who strike it rich as a consequence. But overall, the successful developers in 2014 and beyond will be those who put in the hard work of identifying a target group of users, creating apps that work well for them, and continually refining and reinventing mobile experiences to profitably retain those users." Having said that, games are still the most popular download of choice, says the report, with games and social apps being download over Christmas at twice the rate they were on a typical December day.