40% more North Americans are playing mobile games at 1AM than global average

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Mobile gamers worldwide are most active in-game between 7PM and 9PM, with a peak at 8PM.

This comes according to a new study by ByteBrew, which revealed that, globally, during the 8PM peak, 6.7% of all daily active players play mobile games. This is based on each individual player’s time zone rather than one concurrent playtime worldwide.

Research was gathered from over one billion users playing online mobile games across 200 countries, and was published in The Global Guide for When to Acquire, Engage and Monetise report.

Midnights on mobile

Notably, while 8PM was the average peak time for players on mobile, the research found that North American players fell below the average at this time – with just 6.2% playing mobile games during the hour. This still made it the most popular time to game in North America, just less so than the 6.7% average.

On the other hand, North American players were found to engage with mobile games later into the night than the worldwide average, with 3.8% still playing at midnight and 2.9% at 1AM. Globally, the average at these times was 2.8% and 2.1% respectively.

This meant that North America had 40% more players at 1AM than the global average.

Players in Latin America also landed above the midnight average during the study period, matching North America’s 3.8% exactly, but they also stayed up later; at 5AM, only 1.4% of North American mobile players were up playing games, versus 2.2% in Latin America.

The report noted that Latin American players “are eager to extend their gaming activity into the morning hours”.

APAC players, meanwhile, were found to be more engaged from 6PM to 8PM than the global average, with 7.2% of all APAC players gaming on mobile at the 8PM peak. Late-night hours were found to be below average, however, at just 2.2% by midnight – the “largest decline in activity compared to global averages”.

Centralised score

Lastly, ByteBrew’s report highlighted peak playtimes synchronously around the world, based on the UTC time zone. Data suggested that peak worldwide activity was at 3PM UTC while the least active hour was 6AM UTC.

“As illustrated throughout this study, mobile gamers in each region display drastically different play behaviours, highlighting the importance of tailoring development strategies for each unique market,” ByteBrew said.

The full report also recommends the best times to launch global promotional events.

Earlier this month, ByteBrew also partnered with CrazyGames to support web game developers.