Like most entertainment categories, gaming has also witnessed a great democratisation driven by smartphones. According to inmobi report titled as “Audience insight mobile gaming”, mobile gaming will account for over 48 per cent of overall revenues, beating both console and PC gaming.
Once which was considered to be a niche interest, now claims 4.7 billion devices across the world. With over 2.6 billion mobile gamers across the world, the report deep dives into three key regions: Australia, Indonesia, and India to understand their behaviour.
Here are the findings for India:
- India is home to one out of 10 the world’s gamers and is poised to become one of the top mobile gaming markets in APAC . With mobile proving to be a low barrier to entry for most, 89 per cent of India’s gamers are on mobile with a 20.3 per cent growth year on year. The typical profile of a gamer has shifted over the years in India. Today’s gamers come from diverse backgrounds and have a variety of interests.
- Indians interact 2.6x times more with video ads shown in Gaming apps than with those shown in other apps. Video advertisements in gaming apps are among the most popular and deliver 31 per cent higher completion rates for publishers (over the MOAT benchmark) on the InMobi advertising platform.
- Gaming is not only popular among the Gen Z, but is equally popular among those in the age group of 45 to 54 years. Different generations are logging on to play mobile games, and their favourites include: casual, board, action, arcade, card games.
- The popularity of mobile gaming in India is varied across regions. This is reflective of several factors such as internet connectivity, digital maturity, and behavioral attributes across these regions.
- 43 per cent of the mobile gaming audience in India of which 12 per cent are in the age group of 25 to 44 years and 28 per cent are over 45 years. Women today are highly committed gamers, with 77 per cent of them playing at least once a day if not more, to relax and stay connected with family and friends. Data finds that around 32 per cent of women play games in 10-minute sessions while 23 per cent tend to play for over an hour every day.
- During Covid period, 80 per cent growth of gaming users were noticed in March and April.
- As people began to spend more time indoors in 2020, many are turning to their phones as a source of entertainment leading to a significant growth in app usage and unique users.
- There has been a growth of 65 per cent in gaming apps and the interest of players towards arcade, casual games, casino games are higher than other categories. While casual and card/puzzle/board games are a popular choice among all gamers, the committed players and Gen Z gamers have a greater inclination towards MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena), simulation, and action games.
- Non-Strategy led games such as Word and Arcade games have witnessed increasing popularity while commanding a larger share of spends. This phenomenon can be attributed to their high accessibility and the ability of an average user to be able to plug and play these games
- Indian gamers love experimenting with new games. Half of the survey respondents said that they download a new game every week while over 40 per cent have more than three games on their smartphones at any given time.
- Growth in spends on gaming apps – January 2020 to March 2020 has been highest for casual games with 331 per cent.