Gameloft have announced their first quarter sales results with a grand total of â¬54.2 million ( £46 million), up 21% from the previous year.
Sales were driven by the company’s mobile games on smartphones and tablets, with first quarter sales on the same up a whopping 71% year on year, Gameloft said.
However this number was down slightly on sales in the fourth quarter of 2012, from â¬57.7 million ( £49 million).
The rise in sales to smartphones and tablets represented 60% of the total group sales, compared with 43% in the first quarter of last year. Europe, the Middle East and African were 32% of the first quarter sales, with North America accounting for 25%.
Growth was also due to the free-to-play model of gaming, used since 2011, the company said, with more than 67% of smartphone sales derived from in-app purchases and advertising revenue in the first quarter of this year. This style of play also increased the longevity of products, it said, with games from the past two years, including My Little Pony and Modern Combat 4, contributing to the company’s performance in this quarter.
Recent forecasts have predicted that tablet gamers will spend over £1.97 billion on in-app purchases by 2016 due to a shift from users of portable gaming devices to tablets and smartphones. The freemium model described by Gameloft above, was being embraced by tablet users in particular, Juniper Research found.
Gameloft expected sales and profitability to continue to grow this year thanks to upcoming mobile releases.
Check out What Mobile’s interview with Gameloft UK and Ireland country manager David Whitby about the future of mobile gaming here.