Nearly half of smartphone users in the so-called EU5 countries play games on their devices at least once a month, according to a new study.

ComScore found that 46.4 million smartphone users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK accessed games in February 2012, representing 42 percent of the EU5 audience. The number of EU5 monthly smartphone gamers has grown 55 percent over the past year, says ComScore, a result of the “rapid adoption of smartphones and the vast ecosystems of game apps they provide.”

The UK proved to be the largest market for mobile gaming with 14.2 million smartphone users playing games on their devices during the month, representing 52 percent of the smartphone audience. UK smartphone users also ranked first in terms of gaming penetration across daily and weekly gaming usage.

“As mobile games evolve from simple pre-loaded games to highly challenging and visually appealing games, their entertainment value has increased substantially,” said Hesham Al-Jehani, comScore Europe product manager for Mobile.

“But another important – and perhaps less often reported – driver of mobile gaming is that many can be played without accessing the Internet on people’s phones. This means that gaming is an easy way to fill idle time on the underground or in other locations where Internet access is spotty.”

The study also tracked the prevalence of “social gaming.” It found that 6.1 million EU5 smartphone gamers logged into a social game on their devices in February (up 42 percent in the past six months), representing 13.2 percent of smartphone gamers overall. The Italian smartphone gaming audience ranked first in terms of the penetration at 15.5 percent, followed by the UK (14.2 percent) and France (13.1 percent).