Mobile games are still by far the most popular downloads on iPhone

comScore today released a report showing that since it’s launch, 12 of the 25 most downloaded apps on the iPhone App Store have been games. The number 1 spot goes to Tap Tap Revenge from Tapulous - a music game that has been installed by 32% of Apple App users since February 2009. The report also looks into the behaviour and demographics of Apple App users.

App users love mobile games

Almost half of all the top 25 downloads were games. Of the remaining 13, they were mostly social netoworking and communications apps:

Other findings in brief:

Here’s a quick look at the other findings of the report

- App users are highly engaged. They tend to spend longer on average with each download then a regular on-line Internet user would on anything they access through the fixed web.

- 35% of all app users belong to a household earning at least $100,000 per year.

- 54% of app users are in households making at least $75,000 per year.

- They are at least three times more likely than the average Internet user to visit popular gaming sites.

- They are at least three times more likely than average to visit popular social networking and entertainment sites.

From the release:

“It’s impressive that a game like Tapulous’s Tap Tap Revenge can attract a higher penetration among Apple app users than apps for larger and more established brands,” said Brian Jurutka, vice president, comScore. “Tap Tap’s success demonstrates that there is ample opportunity in the app space for any publisher to obtain significant distribution with a product that engages users. Since the number of app users is growing nearly ten percent each month, that opportunity will only continue to grow for both existing and emerging app developers.”

“comScore’s Apple App Store data confirms the popularity of Tap Tap Revenge,” said Bart Decrem, CEO, Tapulous. “Unlike other Apple app rankings, which list apps by popularity during a given time period, the comScore view shows the cumulative installed base of the applications, thereby revealing the true size of the  audience that can be reached. For example, we are able to see that some of the top gaming apps reach even more people than the most popular social networking apps. With such a large base having already installed the free version of the product, converting even a small portion into paid versions using premium content like Coldplay and Tap Tap Dance represents significant revenue upside.”

What we think?

There’s not a whole lot of surprises in those figures, to be honest, but it’s good to see it laid out so starkly. The demographics that comScore unleashed are particularly unsurprising - people who own iPhones and download a lot of apps are more affluent than most other people? Shocking. The gaming figures are good news for those pushing the market, especially those creating high-quality multimedia products.