Covid-19 pandemic led lockdown has escalated the rise of online gaming as majority of the population irrespective of age group is now indulging into gaming to overcome stay at home boredom and a mode to connect with the outer world through gaming. The question is will this rising number of online gamers sustain post pandemic? Recently IDC and Loop me have conducted a global consumer survey that assessed how mobile gaming activity is likely to be affected after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. The survey revealed a sharp increase in mobile gameplay since the pandemic began – 63per cent of respondents reported an increase in gameplay time, more-so in countries hard hit by COVID-19 – with an estimated 75per cent of the net rise in mobile gaming activity to remain after the “new normal” is established in the next two years.
IDC partnered with LoopMe to field and analyze a survey of mobile gamers in six countries, asking respondents about their existing gaming activities, as well as their intentions regarding future gameplay time commitments after the pandemic is largely in-hand in their native countries. The language-localized survey was fielded to approximately 3,850 smartphone users in the U.S., the U.K., Japan, Germany, Brazil, and Singapore in April, and the results were analyzed in May 2021. These countries were selected, in part, to get a mix of high COVID-19 impact countries and low COVID-19 impact countries. Data were normalized to account for population and gender splits by country.
“Two of the clearest and most important signals we found in the survey results were that mobile gaming activity tended to increase more in the countries with the highest COVID-19 death rates, and that gamers in these same countries expected a larger pullback in gaming once the pandemic has subsided compared to gamers in countries that have had low COVID-19 death rates.This latter change, which should propagate globally in the next 12 to 24 months, will likely have important implications for game developers and publishers, as well as for those involved in mobile game advertising,” said IDC director of Gaming and VR/AR research Lewis Ward.
Highlights of the new study include:
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In the six countries surveyed, more than two in three smartphone owners reported playing mobile games in recent months
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63per cent of respondents increased their mobile gameplay time after the pandemic began
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A correlation was found between increased mobile gameplay time commitments and local pandemic effects (specifically, the per capita COVID-19 death rate)
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3 in 4 mobile gamers reported playing to be entertained or just to pass the time; 4per cent said they were playing to engage in “safe” virtual social interactions that are supported by live multiplayer games especially; more broadly, it appears live multiplayer mobile games outperformed in 2020
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6per cent of today’s mobile gamer community didn’t play prior to the pandemic; these new gamers appeared to skew male and a few years younger in age than the broader base of pre-pandemic mobile gamers
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After the pandemic is largely over (presumably late 2022 in most countries), it appears that 25per cent of the net increase in mobile gaming activity induced by the pandemic will dissipate and 75per cent of the net rise will remain indefinitely; this “new normal” will vary substantively by country, however, partly based on the severity of the local pandemic
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Largely due to pandemic effects, the worldwide base of gamers that played on a smartphone or slate tablet monthly jumped 12per cent in 2020 compared to 2019, to roughly 2.25 billion last year
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A majority of mobile gamers make critical buying decisions for their households
“From a brand advertiser perspective, one particularly interesting takeaway from the survey was that mobile gamers have significant general purchasing power and are making critical buying decisions for their households.This presents a rich opportunity for brand advertisers to leverage in-game mobile placements within their overall ad spend in order to reach decision-making consumers where they are spending a lot of their time – playing games on their smartphones and tablets,”said LoopMe vice president of marketing Rachel Conforti. “
According to slots experts SlotsHawk.com, online gaming will continue to surge in popularity as long as efforts continue to be made to improve the niche.
“The pandemic witnessed a huge number of new consumers playing games on their mobile devices.In 2022, the number of mobile slots players surpassed the number of players who played on a desktop or laptop device, and we expect this trend to continue.Mobile devices are becoming larger and the technology is incredibly powerful. People now have a powerful mini computer in their pockets.”