Games accounted for a third of mobile downloads worldwide and 10 per cent of all time spent in mobile apps in 2018, App Annie found.

In its latest State of Mobile Games report, the analytics company said 72 per cent of global downloads flowed through the Google Play store. However, it noted Apple’s App Store continued to lead in terms of making money, accounting for 64 per cent of consumer spending on mobile games.

Overall outlay on mobile games rose 15 per cent year-on-year for both the App Store and Google Play and was 20 per cent higher than on all other platforms (including PCs, console and handheld gaming) combined.

In a blog post, App Annie senior market insights manager Lexi Sydow wrote the story of mobile gaming is “not a simple case of there being more gamers or more gamers spending more money,” adding “all areas of gaming expanded” including casual and cross-platform games.

Racing titles fared particularly well, with spending growing nearly eight-times faster than the overall market. Adventure games followed, at around five-times faster.

Between 2016 and 2018, the company found the number of games across Android and iOS generating more than $5 million per annum grew from 1,200 to 1,900.

Companies headquartered in China captured nearly a third of global outlay in 2018, followed by the US (22 per cent) and Japan (21 per cent).