According to Kantar, every day, global consumers will check their smartphones more than 100 billion times – these are the 100 billion occasions that we can understand and engage consumers, and every occasion is a “moment” that is unique to each individual consumer. On top of that, we need to add numerous offline touchpoints that consumers are interacting with – this creates an even messier and more complicated media landscape that brands need to navigate – they need to identify which “moments” they need to focus on to win their targeted audiences.
According to Newzoo, the number of mobile phone gamers will reach 2.2 billion in 2018 and is estimated to reach 2.6 billion in 2021. To better understand the fast-growing mobile gaming industry, Kantar and Google jointly launched the 2018 Global Mobile Gamer Behaviour and Attitude Report. The report was commissioned to deep dive into three genres: casual games, massive multiplayer online (MMO) games and anime games. We surveyed 3,611 mobile gamers between 18 – 49 year old across six markets: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.
The study offers insights into the three stages of a typical mobile gamer journey: discovery, engagement and purchase.
Step 1: Discovery
How a gamer knows about a new game sometimes will decide the fate of this game. A gamer’s “gaming moment” includes many factors, such as which game he/she plays, when he/she plays it, which device, with whom he/she is playing it, the mood in which he/she plays it.
Mobile game is a unique category – gamers need instant satisfaction. It is also true for their behaviour when downloading a new game – it’s similar to that of an impulsive buying. Game developers need to understand the “moment” and carefully design it to create a scenario favourable to their products.
The study has found that gamers are exposed to new mobile games through multiple channels. This gives developers ample opportunities to optimize their touchpoint performance with gamers. With better understanding of the “discovery moment”, they can create meaningful and engaging experiences for gamers to try their new games. Among all channels, app store is still the leader as 60% of respondents mentioned it as a channel of discovery, followed by word of mouth (38%) and social networks (29%).
Three out of five downloads happen within a day. Before downloading, 41% of surveyed gamers will explore more information. The action of information seeking is more common for MMO gamers, many of whom would check out the official websites of the game. It is imperative for game developers to take good care of early game users and KOLs to encourage them to spread positive buzz about new games to recruit future users.
Step 2: Engagement
On average, a gamer plays four games in any given month. Anime gamers are the most active ones as they said they were playing 5.3 games (regardless of game genre) in the past month.
Our research has shown that across all genre game players, relaxing is the biggest trigger, which is to satisfy an individual’s emotional demand. It will be wise for developers to include more emotional elements in “gaming moments” to create deeper bonds with gamers.
Step 3: Purchase
Mobile gamers are willing to pay for download or make in-app purchase, and there is still more potential to grow. Across the three types of gamers, MMO and anime gamers are more willing to pay for gaming.
For those who haven’t paid or with low willingness to pay, they are willing to trade off by watching videos for rewards – 64% of all respondents are willing to do so.
We see a huge potential in the above mentioned three genres of games. Gamer behaviours are continuously evolving. But one truth remains the same: create an extraordinary gaming experience across the whole consumer journey. Design attractive, pleasant and engaging “moments” that are unique to each gamer, you can win it!
To download the full report, please click here
