Mobile Monday: New with Netflix, gaming audience potential and consumer spending on apps

Digital Turbine constantly keeps tabs on the mobile world, and every week we share the most interesting and important stories and articles to know. In this edition of Mobile Monday, we cover Netflix’s upcoming revenue announcement and the addition of an ad-supported tier, more brands targeting the gaming audience, and consumer spending trends in gaming and non-gaming apps. Learn all about these stories in this week’s Mobile Monday!

Netflix won’t crash and stream

On Tuesday, Netflix could have one of its most important moments of the decade when it announces second quarter results. You may recall that their poor first quarter earnings report sent the streaming giant’s stock plummeting, which is now down 70% on the year. With Netflix already giving an outlook of losing 2 million subscribers for the quarter, anything worse could spell seismic change in the streaming video wars – not just for Netflix, but for the category as a whole.

Or maybe not. The thing is, Netflix still has more subscribers than any other service. And if you watch what people watch, his hit series Stranger Things is still at the top of the most streamed shows. So it’s not like people aren’t connecting. And as long as it does, Netflix will always hold a leading position in the market.

But they could still be vulnerable. In order to counter the loss of subscribers, Netflix is ​​preparing to unveil a controversial level of service supported by advertising by controversial ad tech platform of choice at Microsoft. The plan, thankfully, isn’t to start running ads on the shows for existing subscribers. Existing consumers will need to make a conscious decision to upgrade to the ad-supported tier. By offering a lower cost option with ads, we’ll really see if people have a price on how much they’re willing to give up ads to watch their favorite content.

Netflix’s ace in the hole, however, isn’t an ad-supported model or even their content bangers like Stranger Things (though that’s one of them). Their biggest strength is, well, their brand strength. Everyone knows who they are, even if they’re lukewarm on their name at the moment. And like our recent The BRAG blog highlightsthis strength can certainly be used to maintain and grow market share in a way that would be far more popular than adding advertisements to their service.

Elf recognizes the power of gaming audiences

As more and more brands realize the importance of tapping into the gaming audience and just how large and diverse that group is, Elf, the cosmetics company, is the latest brand to target gamers with a new product launch. With their new line of products, called Game Up, Elf includes a hidden code within the products that can be used to access promotions and points with their online loyalty program. Additionally, Elf is launching the new collection at an arcade bar and streaming the event on its Twitch – further efforts aimed at reaching the gaming audience.

Whether it’s beauty, food, cars, or anything in-between, brands continue to see the power and potential of advertising in games and target gaming audiences, as this group is representative of all ages, genders, income levels, education and more, making them a valuable target audience.

Elf has previously sought to reach the gaming audience and even reported that 70% of its social media followers play video games. Additionally, Elf created a platform to support female gamers and turned to TikTok to sponsor a series appealing to gamers. After other major food and retail brands, such as Chipotle and Nike, Elf is just one of the latest brands to realize the importance of gaming audiences and to generate campaigns dedicated to activating this user base.

Spending more and more with apps – and non-gaming apps are taking the lead

Spending on gaming apps has seen a significant increase during the pandemic, with downloads and spending reaching all-time highs. Things are starting to change in some areas, with non-gaming apps earning more than gaming for the first time ever in Q2 2022, according to detection tower.

The increase in revenue from non-gaming applications is partly due to subscriptions, adopted by non-gaming applications in recent years. In 2Q22, 400 apps generated at least $1 million in consumer spending, up 900% from 50 apps in Q2 2016.

A closer look also shows a significant difference between Apple’s App Store and Google Play. While Google sees a lot more downloads (TikTok, for example, has been downloaded 140 million times on Google Play – and just over 60 million times on the App Store), Apple tends to be the deciding factor in graphics terms – users spending more.

Consumer spending on the US App Store from non-gaming apps has reached 50%, up from just 24% five years ago. However, a year-over-year analysis shows a drop in consumer spending for the first time since 2015 – perhaps a natural decline following the pandemic-driven boom in mobile consumer spending.