India is One of the Top Five Players Globally in Mobile Games

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), with Kantar IMRB, recently released a report titled ‘The Power of Mobile Gaming in India’, offering the latest data and insights on mobile gaming trends in the country. With India’s mobile app market growing at breakneck speed, mobile gaming platforms are increasingly commanding a substantial share of the advertising pie. The report was released in association with POKKT, a smart phone advertising platform for mobile games.

According to the report, three out of four Indian gamers play mobile games at least a twice a day, for an average of 60+ minutes, each day. Mobile gaming is also quite prevalent in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, with similar amounts of time spent on gaming by users in these regions. With over 250 million mobile gamers, India has emerged as one of the top 5 gaming countries, globally. With so much time spent on mobile devices, there lies a huge opportunity for marketers to tap into the space. Gaming is not just limited to the younger generations either, but is becoming increasingly popular across all age groups, as 21% of Indian gamers are over 35 years of age. This means that the range of brands that can tap into the mobile gaming market is limitless.

“While it is common to assume that gamers tend come from a younger generation, this research has proven otherwise, and removes the stereotypes of a typical gamer. By changing their perception of what a “gamer” is, marketers can tap into a relatively untouched space and reach out to a sea of customers. Furthermore, since 55% of gamers perceive ads to be more personalised on gaming platforms, there is a much higher level of acceptance,” said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director of MMA in Asia Pacific.

“The Indian market is already known to be a mobile-first economy. The fact that mobile gamers are on their devices twice a day or more, there is ample opportunity for marketers to get creative in the way they run their marketing strategy. Whether it’s through partnerships or simply putting in an algorithm to retarget customers, the potential for monetisation is huge,” added Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India.

“Consumers have taken to mobile gaming in a big way, yet it still remains a relatively untapped advertising channel in India. Our study shows that mobile gaming is truly mainstream today, attracting a wide range of audiences. Besides being a highly sticky medium, it offers high engagement levels akin to OTT platforms. Personally, one of the most interesting findings was the low resistance to in-game advertising, as compared to other channels. This is a golden opportunity for marketers to communicate with their consumers, especially since mobile gamers perceive in-game ads to be more personalized and relevant than traditional media,” said Hemant Mehta, Managing Director, Kantar IMRB and Chief Strategy Officer, Kantar South Asia.

Rohit Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder, POKKT, commented, “POKKT has today more than 140 million monthly users who are average spending more than 60 minutes every day playing mobile games on average. On top of this we have built huge machine learning and data capabilities to do better targeting for advertisers. Brands can certainly benefit from advertising on mobile gaming platforms due to the longer attention span given to mobile games, agreeing with the fact that mobile games is a huge platform for mobile advertising in India.”

While puzzles, quizzes, and word games are popular mobile game formats across all age groups, gamers in the 20-34 years age group are heavy users of action/adventure and racing games, followed closely by online betting, card games, or poker apps. Younger male gamers play games that are more action-oriented, while users older than 35 years prefer mental stimulation games.