Dramatic increase in sport consumption on mobile

[updated with new info]

MLB.com is showing that after 9pm in local markets on the basis of page views mobile use exceeds fixed use (which I think means use of their mobile products not browsing from a mobile device). The later it gets the more appealing it is to follow sport on a mobile device, possibly/probably in a two screen environment.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world: “The official RWC 2011 mobile application, available on BlackBerry, iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 devices, has been downloaded more than three million times and garnered more than 350 million page views, while videos, including match highlights, daily news and best moments from the previous week, have been viewed more than 17 million times through the official mobile app.

More than five million video clips have been viewed on the official tournament website at rugbyworldcup.com with 120 million page impressions generated “

Rugbyworldcup is showing much higher *use* of the app than the site. I understand from other sources that rugbyworldcup.com recorded 15m unique users and 36m visits so 3.33 pages/visit or 8 pages/per UU on the site vs 116 pages per UU via the app. Of course pages on an app are smaller and less information rich and navigation necessitates more clikcing around but the relative number of video views consumed on the app indicates that mobile users made more absolute visits and views, not just relatively more.

A fairly dramatic shift in consumption patterns. Instructive. Slightly scary. But seemingly part of a general trend (see graph from Flurry, below) which is even more marked for users of social networks who spend much mroe time using mobile than fixed devices.