Prime Time is Peak Time for Mobile Gaming and Social Media.

Mobile gamers and social networkers spend the most time playing games or posting updates during TV prime time—weekdays from 8PM to 10PM—according to an hour-by-hour analysis of Arbitron Mobile smartphone panelists in the United States during the fourth quarter 2012.

Five functions––voice calls, messaging, browsing, social networking, and gaming—dominate weekday smartphone use by Arbitron Mobile panelists in the United States.

A weekday hour-by-hour analysis for the top five functions reveals that shifts in usage tend to be linked to the traditional 9AM to 5PM workday schedule and to TV prime time.

The 9 to 5 workday schedule drives most smartphone usage patterns

Average time per hour for each of the five top smartphone functions rises sharply until the 9AM to 10AM hour when messaging, browsing, social networking, and gaming enter a late morning plateau.

The plateau exception: mobile voice calls. Average time per hour continues to increase until noon, when it sags slightly over the lunch break, and then accelerates again to a 5PM peak.

Both mobile social media and mobile gaming see a slow increase in their average time per hour for Arbitron Mobile smartphone panelists starting with the 1PM and 2PM hours, respectively.

The late afternoon hours of 4PM and 5PM mark a significant inflection point for smartphone usage patterns among Arbitron Mobile panelists in the United States.

Starting at 5PM, the average time per hour for voice calling falls off sharply. At the same time, average time per hour for mobile gaming and social networking begins a sharp acceleration toward their respective peak hours of 9PM.

Messaging begins a slow decline at 4PM that continues until 9PM. It then begins a sharper decline in average time per hour that goes on into the after midnight hours.

The end of the workday exception: mobile browsing, which maintains a consistent average time per hour from 10AM through 10PM. As prime time wanes, browsing then declines at a slightly lower rate than other top smartphone activities.

Mobile gaming and social media activities accelerate between 5PM and 6PM to their hourly peaks in TV prime time. Around 10PM, the average time per hour for gaming and social networking begins a steep decline that continues into the early morning, when the workday-based cycle begins again.

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