Gaming smartphones, tablets reach $1B for first time ever

The world now has more than 1 billion smartphones and tablets used for gaming around the world. This is the first time these devices have surpassed that milestone. And Google’s mobile operating system continues to benefit the most from the growth.

Android makes up nearly 75 percent of the the smart-device gaming market, according to a report from intelligence firms App Annie and IDC. From the fourth quarter of 2013 to same period last year, Google’s mobile platform grew 5.2 percent. That came at the cost of both iOS and the rest of the field. Apple’s smartphones and tablets lost 2.3 percent year-over-year, while all other mobile OSes lost 2.8 percent. Global revenues for mobile gaming reached $25 billion in 2014, and iOS and Android — which each take 30 percent cuts from game sales and in-app purchases — pocketed a significant chunk of that cash.