45% of Indian mobile users introduced to gaming during the pandemic: Report

Nearly half of India’s mobile users took to gaming during the pandemic, with committed gamers spending 40% more time on gaming during this time. On average, the time spent on gaming apps also surged with people starting to play as early as 7.30 am and a 6.6 fold increase in gameplay at 1.30 am as per a new report by Inmobi. The report, “Everyone’s Gaming Among Us – Mobile Gaming through the Pandemic and Beyond” is based on insights from app usage and patterns that were analysed based in 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. “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,” said Vasuta Agarwal, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, InMobi.

The report found that women comprise 43% of the mobile gaming audience in India, of which 12% are between 25-44 and 28 % are over 45 years. Indians tend to game more in short spurts during the day, with 40% respondents saying they usually play in 10 minute session between meetings, chores etc. Among the committed gamers, over 84 % of the players spending up to an hour on mobile gaming in a single sitting.

Indians are also fond of experimenting with new games, with 40% saying they had more than three games on the phone at any given time and over half downloading a new game every week.

Data also shows that 74 per cent of the gamers prefer to watch gaming advertisements over in-app purchases in order to move to the next stage in the game. They also boast of a high ad recall with 60 per cent being able to recall an ad seen in or during a game.

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 one of the most scalable channels for brands to reach diverse target audiences. Be it women, millennials, sports enthusiasts, or OTT viewers, everybody is gaming among us. Moreover, mobile gamers are receptive to advertising with 3 in 4 consumers preferring to see an ad and 60% of them being able to recall the ads they see. Gaming is the biggest opportunity for brands to maximize impact with video and other engaging formats in 2021,” said Agarwal.