An extensive report from research firm EEDAR breaks down the who, what, where, why, and how of today’s North American (U.S. and Canada) mobile game market. EEDAR’s report, “Deconstructing Mobile & Tablet Gaming” (free version below), says as of Q3 this year, there were 142 million North American mobile game players, up from 111 million in 2013. These players generated $4.63 billion in mobile game revenue. Among many interesting data points derived from its 3,500-person pool of respondents was a breakdown of how people discover mobile games that they buy. Discoverability is one of the foremost concerns among game developers who are about to bring their game to market, as digital storefronts become increasingly crowded by competing video games. While more person-to-person methods of discoverability such as “Word of mouth” and “Saw someone play” hover near the most popular results, it’s the top sales charts on app stores that are the most-used sources when finding out about new games. EEDAR stated that compared to last year, videos of games (broadcasted via services like Everplay and YouTube) have made the most dramatic leap in terms of popularity as a discoverability source. Last year, videos were the 12th most-used discovery source among 17 choices; this year, they rank 6th. “Moving forward, the integration of easy video sharing options will be crucial to driving organic virality and promoting community engagement,” EEDAR’s report reads. Below are the rankings for discoverability source, as well as a free version of the report. A larger paid version of the report is also available. 
EEDAR-2014 Deconstructing Mobile and Tablet Gaming Free Report