• Biz Report, Wednesday, October 13, 2010 10:34 AM

Social games and social networking apps on Apple's operating system are now competing for eyeballs with popular television shows and sports broadcasts -- and winning. App-tracking firm Flurry's study found that 19 million American users spend an average of 22 minutes each day on iOS social gaming apps, says Biz Report.

That audience tops NBC's "Sunday Night Football" and is on a par with hit shows such as ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." Even America's top-rated television show Fox's "American Idol" leads iOS users by only 4 million daily viewers. No single iOS social game attracts the audiences that the listed television programs attract - the iOS figures represent the grand total of all the apps monitored by Flurry.

According to the numbers, those multimilion iOS-device users spend over 22 minutes per day playing social games on their iPhone/Pod/Pads. Those are minutes that they could otherwise spend watching prime time TV -- and the advertising that encapsulates it. And the "size and reach" of total iOS use is far greater than those 19 million users; Flurry tracks the usage of only 20 per cent of the iTunes App Store's 250,000-plus available time-wasters.

Read the whole story at Biz Report »