Social Casino Apps Rule the Roost in Mobile App Market

Social casino applications and games now dominate the leaderboards in both the Apple App store and the Google Play store. Recent research by analyst Distimo points to the fact that 20 app publishers in the top 100 iStore list have at least one casino style game in their offering, with 19 in the Google Play store in the top 100. Some of the biggest names in the social casino and games industry have the lion's share of the market with Playtika at the very top as its Slotomania offering has had over 5 million downloads, and you'll also see Big Fish Games up there, followed by the like of Zynga and IGT's DoubleDown Casino.

Is it any surprise however that these types of games dominate the top of the leaderboards, especially as there are so many of them now available. The big question is whether or not that this growth and use is sustainable, and many observers believe not. A while back there was little marketing costs in social gaming as almost every time you logged into Facebook you'd get a game request or see your news feed full of friends gaming updates, they were everywhere, however FB have put a stop to most of that, and if you hadn't noticed it, then your wall is now no longer full of friends gaming activity. There's also the fact that there are now hundreds of casino style applications all competing in the same space, and surely many will have to fall by wayside at some point. There's also the huge issue of the slowing down of social network activity, and with that the general sale of virtual goods is down, and combined with the fact that it is now harder for companies to monetize any social application means that there's less cash around. For the time being however casino apps are at the top of the tree, but for how long, no-one is sure.