45% of India’s mobile users introduced to gaming by the pandemic: InMobi survey

According to the survey, mobile gamers are more willing to watch an advertisement than make an in-app payment during the course of gameplay.

A substantial (45%) of Indians started playing mobile games during the pandemic • 40% of committed gamer spent more time on gaming apps, and 38% increased the variety of games they played (REUTERS)

InMobi on Thursday published a ‘2021 Gaming Report, India' to shed light on the growing popularity of video games in the country. According to the report, the onset of pandemic and subsequent lockdown led to a significant shift in mobile usage and consequently helped the growth of mobile gaming in India.

The report titled "Everyone's Gaming Among Us - Mobile Gaming through the Pandemic and Beyond” reveals 45% of Indians started playing games on their smartphones. It also led to a surge in the amount of time spent on mobile gaming and the number of apps users experimented with.

Among the committed gamers, 40% spent more time on gaming apps, while 38% of them increased the variety of games they played. The report further said that on an average day, time spent on gaming apps surged through the day as people played a lot more often starting as early as 7:30 AM till 11:30 PM. The sharpest surge in the use of gaming apps occurred at 11:30 AM, with a 6.6x increase in gameplay.

The InMobi report is based on the app usage patterns and trends that were analysed basis of 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.

The report further said that majority of Indians are committed gamers who play at least once or more every day. It also highlights that women constitute 43% of the mobile gaming audience, of which 12% belong to the age group of 25-44, and 28% are above 45 years.

“Despite the huge opportunity right in front of them, most marketers seem to be hesitant when it comes to investing in the gaming space. They carry misplaced notions on the lack of personas, placements, engagement, and of course brand safety – but this couldn't be further from the truth! Contrary to the popular notion, women today are highly committed gamers, with 77% of them playing at least once a day if not more, to relax and stay connected with family and friends. Data finds that around 32% of women games play in 10-minute sessions while 23% tend to play for over an hour every day,” the report added.