The InMobi’s 2021 Gaming Report titled “Everyone’s Gaming Among Us – Mobile Gaming through the Pandemic and Beyond” reveals insights derived from the app usage patterns and trends that were analyzed basis 1.7 trillion ad requests between January 2020 and January 2021 on the InMobi Marketing Cloud and Audience Intelligence Platform, and a survey conducted among over 1000 smartphone users from across India using InMobi Pulse. InMobi Pulse is a leading mobile consumer intelligence platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Overall, the report indicates that in India, which is home to 1 out of 10 gamers across the globe, mobile gaming is a source of entertainment as well as relaxation, and it has become a mainstay in the life of the average citizen.
Commenting on the changing gaming pattern in India, Vasuta Agarwal, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, InMobi, said, “Mobile gaming accelerated due to the lockdown in India as people continued to shelter at place and work from home. What was seemingly an emerging trend is now a lasting behavior with a 1.5x growth in gaming users. With over 80% of mobile gamers playing every day, it has evolved to become an integral part of the connected consumer’s life!”
India: The Land of the Committed Mobile Gamer: Gaming in India is no longer restricted to young men. Majority of Indians are committed gamers who play at least once or more every day. Accessibility and affordability of smartphones and high-speed internet are some of the factors which have made mobile gaming a popular source of entertainment for people regardless of age and location. The report highlights that women constitute 43 per cent of the Mobile Gaming audience in India of which 12 per cent are in the age group of 25-44 and 28 per cent are over 45 years.
Typically, Indians play mobile games in multiple short spurts during the day. 40 per cent of the respondents who participated in the InMobi Pulse survey indicated that they usually play in 10-minute sessions – in between meetings, chores, meals, etc. However, committed gamers, on the contrary, spend substantially more time per session than other gamers, with over 84 per cent of the players spending up to an hour on mobile gaming in a single sitting.
According to the report, committed Indian gamers love experimenting with new games. More than half of the survey respondents said they download a new game every week while over 40 per cent have more than three games on their smartphones at any given time. Given the vast app universe and increasing size of the apps, Indian gamers say they have to constantly choose between apps that they want to keep on their smartphones. 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.
Advertisements on gaming apps and other apps and word-of-mouth are the most preferred ways of finding new games. While committed gamers prefer app store recommendations and ads on gaming apps to find new games, occasional gamers mainly rely on word-of-mouth, in-app ads and social media to discover new games.