Portable gaming market will top $12 billion in 2013 -report

Portable console, mobile and tablet gaming is worth big, big money, according to a new report.

According to App Annie and International Data Corporation, as reported by GamesIndustry, the portable gaming industry will have brought in more than $12 billion in worldwide revenues by the end of 2013 and will continue growing through 2014.

Drawing on analytics data harvested from over 190,000 apps, including 80% of the top 100 grossing titles on the app store, the report said 51% of all portable revenue stems from in-app purchases - up from about 40% in 2012 - 44% from up-front purchases, and the remainder from advertising.

The report estimates that in 2012 there were 800 million portable devices used for gaming - dedicated consoles, smartphones, and tablets - but that by the end of 2014 there will be 1.2 billion.

Most of the expected growth is in the smartphone area, but the install base for dedicated handheld consoles are not expected to shrink; in fact, the report predicted that revenue per user on devices like 3DS and Vita would rise, with other platforms likely to fall.