Indian mobile gaming trends and choices

09th December 2016
Indian  mobile gaming trends and choices
Image courtesy AnimationXPress

A survey tracks the habits and preferences of Indian gamers on the mobile phone. 

Bangalore, December 9 2016: A survey of mobile phone-based gaming in India reveals that  women are the most serious gamers, while 90 percent of smartphone owners play games at least once a week.

The report  entitled, ‘India & Mobile Gaming: Poised for Massive Growth’  banks on  insights and data collected from over 3,500 Indian smartphone owners and over 220 million mobile app installs in India  between January and September 2016.

It is sponsored by Seattle(US)- based enterprise Software as a Service provider for mobile marketing,  TUNE. 
The report highlights the frenetic  pace of mobile gaming growth  in India -- at an average rate  of 56 %. Indian gaming revenue is set to double in the next three years and hit Rs  250 billion by 2019,  thanks to rapid  smartphone penetration and higher in-app spending in the market:  34% of Indians respondents admitted to spending money in mobile games every month.  Indians downloaded more than 3 times  as many commerce-oriented apps per capita as the next highest country, Brazil.
 Says Ashwiny Thapliyal, Regional Head of Sales India for Tune: “India is already the world’s second-biggest market for smartphones. With 221 million smartphone owners and as many as 800 million Indian citizens joining the smartphone revolution over the next decade, India will emerge as the country with biggest global opportunity for growth. India is a mobile-first country and its people are mobile-centric buyers." Tune opened its  first corporate office in India in  Delhi/NCR last month.

Game Download Trends : 
84% of Indian smartphone owners have games on their phones

37% of gamers have three or more games on their phones

47% of Indians in top urban cities like Delhi and Mumbai tend to install one to two games on their phone

90% of Indian smartphone owners download games regularly and are very willing to try new apps, especially new games. Those with cheaper smartphones change to new games more frequently possibly due to low storage/device memory.

Google Play is the undisputed leader in India, taking 94% share of all game installs

The cheaper the phone one possesses, the more likely is an Indian consumer to get new apps straight from a friend or from the web. Almost 7% of people get new apps from their friends
Gaming Behaviour Trends

Almost 9 in 10 Indian smartphone owners play games weekly 

86% of people play at least one game regularly and almost a third play more than three games regularly

Indians who own expensive smartphones worth Rs 30,000 or more are less likely to play games

57% of Indian mobile gamers prefer single-player games . Only three of the top 10 downloaded games are team or multi-player games

Just over one in 10 Indians play the same game regularly for over a year. 50% of Indians give a game just a few days and switch to a new one, if it’s not interesting, fun, or engaging enough they switch to a new one

 Gender Matters 

Women play just as many games as men, but men play for longer 

92% men play at least one hour per week as against 87% women who play at least one hour per week

57% of men play more than two hours each week, compared to 48% of womenInterestingly, 54% men prefer single-player games

Mobile Game Monetization and in-app Purchases

Similar to world average, 2.5% of Indian gamers provide over half of game revenue, and 5% account for almost 80% of all game monetization in the country.  Young gamers are the least likely to pay; 71% of Indian smartphone owners (under the age of 21) buy nothing in games every month. Just % of gamers spend over Rs 200 each month, and almost one in 10 spend over INR 50 every month, while 32% of gamers use digital wallet to cover their mobile game purchases and e 25% use a debit card as opposed to a credit card- widely use payment mode internationally