In social distancing era, m-gaming is here to stay

From my vantage point, I know of loved ones and peers who took to mobile games more fervently during the past year. As we complete the pandemic anniversary, let us ponder over what is actually driving mobile gaming, and what does the future portend.

As smartphones continue to be the central nervous system of human lives, the dependence on phones for work, for learning, and most importantly, for unwinding and socialising through gaming rose during the last year.

Much before the pandemic, mobile gaming was on the upswing, driven by the ubiquitous smartphones and the availability of low-cost data.

The ongoing research of CyberMedia Research (CMR) around gaming has thrown some interesting insights. For instance, mobile gaming in India is driven by an array of gamer personas, ranging from the serious to the hyper-casual gamers. The growth in mobile gaming was led not by serious gamers, but rather casual and hyper-casual gamers.

The democratisation of gaming can be traced to the smartphone usage. With smartphones, the need for dedicated gaming hardware devices is not felt. No consoles required. Additionally, mobile gaming apps evoke a sense of familiarity with consumers. Think Puzzles. Or card games.

With ease of access to such ‘freemium’ gaming apps online, more users than before, who typically do not identify themselves as ‘gamers’ have taken up gaming.

Our research points out the gaming intents vary across consumer cohorts. For instance, serious gamers primarily play to ‘relieve stress’, while casual and hyper-casual gamers seek to have ‘fun’. The choice of games is dictated by recommendations from friends and family. Social networking and social messaging platforms are two of the prominent channels for consumer awareness around new games.

Today’s gamers have, on an average, close to seven games installed on their mobile phones. Among these, there are at least four games that they play avidly. Interestingly, men prefer to unwind with mobile games in the early evening, while women mostly chose to play during late night. On an average, the duration of gaming play spans close to 90 minutes.