Online gaming seems to be getting very popular in India, if the report released by Indiagames is anything to go by. A study was conducted on more than 10,000 paid subscribers of the Indiagames Games on Demand (GoD) subscription service and the results are pretty encouraging for the gaming industry.
Cutting across age groups and income segments, there has been a phenomenal increase in the consumption of gaming in the year 2007. In Mobile gaming, the surge came from smaller towns and at lower price points, while over 3 million gamers took to the Online gaming segment. Adding to that, the launch of gaming consoles like XBOX 360 and Sony PS3 piqued consumer interest as well.
In an official press release, Mr. Vishal Gondal, CEO, Indiagames said, “The facts and observations from this study are quite exciting for everyone in the gaming industry. The year 2007 has been great and we believe 2008 would be much more exciting. We will definitely see more people budgeting gaming into their spending on entertainment.”
“The study is of interest to marketers across industries as more people are playing during prime time. Also 60% of the gamers are aged above 22 years with working professionals and business people comprising of 34% of gamers. The preachers of In-Game advertising have some thing to munch here.”
Here are some key observations from the study
- Indiagames through its Games on Demand (GoD) subscription service has recorded about 10,000 paid subscribers. In 2007 the total game play on the service was recorded as 279,81,060 minutes over 1 year with an average time spent of about 233 minutes per user per month and a peak usage of 981 users.
- 60% of the gamers are aged above 22 which breaks a myth that gaming is of interest to only teens.
- 50% of the gamers are from North, 25% from West followed by 20% from South. The Eastern region comprises of only 5%.
- The gaming scenario is still dominated by males but share of women is constantly growing. 13% of the gamers are women and the rest males.
- The time at which people play also varies. The peak time of gaming is 7 PM with the maximum play is recorded between 7 PM and 12 AM. The lowest play time is recorded at 5 AM.
- 34% of the users are working professionals and business people. 7% of the users are housewives and 4% of users are retired people.
- The top game genre is Casual gaming with 47% share followed by Strategy & Action with 17% each.
- The most played game is Chess-master challenge followed by Diner Dash 2 and Flip Words – overall a healthy blend of casual, strategy, action & sports games.