Meta held its inaugural Gaming Summit in India recently to mark the rising importance of the sector, which is also among the top three business verticals for Meta. The company also unveiled key consumer findings from a Meta-commissioned study by audience-research company GWI focused on gaming.
Among the key findings, the study calls out the rising prevalence of gaming in India with nearly half of casual gamers and 43 per cent of real-money gamers coming from non-metro geographies. The study also called out reels, video ads on Meta and influencers as top drivers for gamers to discover and purchase new games.
“Gaming is a top three vertical for Meta globally and we’re particularly seeing our Advantage+ suite of automated ads drive growth for gaming brands. Equally, as the study reveals, Meta is a leading channel for gamers to discover and purchase new games. Gaming is poised to play a leading role in India’s techade, and we’re thrilled to enable growth opportunities for gaming businesses at different stages of their journey,” said Meta Ads business director and head (India) Arun Srinivas.
The summit was attended by the country’s biggest gaming brands that shed light on the use of innovative cutting-edge technologies such as AI that has helped them drive growth for their business. They also highlighted the top trends shaping the gaming industry in India right now.
“As a brand that puts innovation and experimentation first, we were keen to use Meta’s Advantage+ App campaigns. With the help of this automated solution, our customer acquisition cost (CAC) improved by 12 per cent. Today, the majority of our users come from outside the tier-one and two cities and Meta has played a key role in helping us reach sports fans across the country,” said Dream Sports chief marketing officer Vikrant Mudaliar. “One of our deepest partnerships was during the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 during which we prioritised the testing of new products and measurement. Meta’s marketing science teams helped us measure incremental performance and gave us confidence in running campaigns at scale — that’s the strategy we envision ourselves using for the upcoming IPL 2024 as well.”
“From using AI-powered Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, partnership ads, and influencer-led creatives that together drove a 123 per cent increase in installed volume along with a 15 per cent decrease in the Cost Per First Time Transaction. We have exciting plans ahead, and we will partner closely with Meta and use new cutting-edge solutions that help us deliver business outcomes in a rapidly evolving ecosystem,” said Baazi Games growth AVP Jaskaran Singh.
The Meta GWI study showed that more than three out of four casual and real money gamers in India discover new games to play and purchase on social media, and more than 90 per cent of these do so on the Meta platforms.
The study revealed that key moments such as major sporting events and the festive period impact the types of games played. 88 per cent of the consumers said that they’re more likely to switch from playing other real-money games to playing fantasy sports games during tentpole sporting events (such as the IPL and World Cup). This could play a key role during the upcoming IPL tournament.
Key insights from the Meta-commissioned study by GWI on gaming:
- Gaming is becoming more prevalent across India: The study revealed that six in 10 smartphone gamers game daily, and almost 90 per cent of real-money gamers play real-money games at least weekly. The study also showed that nearly half of casual gamers and 43 per cent of real-money gamers come from non-metro geographies.
- Meta’s role in driving discovery of new games: Meta plays a crucial role in helping gamers discover and purchase new games. More than three out of four casual and real money gamers in India discover new games to play and purchase on social media, and more than 90 per cent of these do so on the Meta platforms, as per the study. Reels, ads, and influencers play a leading role in driving this discovery.
- Key moments for gamers are: The festive season and sporting events impact the types of games played, according to the study. 88 per cent say they are more likely to switch from playing other real-money games to playing fantasy sports games during tentpole sporting events such as IPL and World Cup.
- Technologies that gamers love: Artificial intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) are the top three gaming technologies that most interest casual gamers in India.