UK consumers spent a total of £170 million on mobile phone games last year, according to a national survey conducted by TNS and Gamesindustry.com.

Almost half - 3.8 million - of the UK’s eight million mobile gamers paid for games in 2009, while one third of paying mobile gamers spent more than £5 pounds a month on average.

14 per cent of UK mobile gamers play daily, although the figure rises to 18 per cent for people who have paid for games. Playing session times tend to last between 15 and 60 minutes.

The survey found puzzle, strategy, racing and arcade games to be the most popular genres.

53 per cent of paying mobile gamers are male and 47 per cent are female. 20-34 year olds account for 39 per cent of mobile gamers, while teens make up only 18 per cent of the market.

Apple’s iPhone is the most successful handset brand when it comes to converting mobile gamers to paying, with 85 per cent of iPhone’s 700,000 UK gamers forking out for games last year.

“The iPhone does, by far, not have the number of users as other handset brands but is extremely good at monetising the popularity of games on mobile phones,” said Gamesindustry.com’s Peter Warman. “This has also clearly had its effect on the conversion to paying gamers of the large operators closely related to iPhone.”