Facebook Gaming, in partnership with Facebook IQ and mobile game insight and analytics specialist GameRefinery, have announced the launch of a new mobile gaming report: ‘Genre and great games – Understanding Audiences and Designing Better Mobile Games’. The report is made after surveying 13k mobile gamers.
“With this genre report, we sought to understand people’s motivations for downloading a specific game, what role community plays in mobile gaming and how gamers respond to ads. By truly understanding these factors, mobile game marketers and developers can equip themselves with the knowledge they need to continue to generate revenue, as well as create engaging, useful content for their target audiences,” said Facebook vice president of Global Gaming Rick Kelley.
Here are the insights from the report
- Top factors that are driving mobile game players to download new games are – 49 per cent download because of genre,40 per cent due to recommendation from family and friends, 35 per cent due to app store reviews, 34 per cent due to sequel familiarity, and 33 per cent due to device data requirement.
- Strategy playership in South Korea is highest with 26 per cent followed by US 23 per cent, UK 20 per cent, and Japan 12 per cent. Strategy players tend to be younger males who play for longer and like trying out new games. They view mobile gaming as a social activity, preferring game features that enable social interaction. This high engagement rate means that it comes as no surprise that Strategy players are more likely to self-identify as “gamers” than other mobile gamers.
- These strategy players age group according to demographics are as follows:
-In US 67 per cent of male and 33 per cent of females of age group 18- 34 years play strategy games which is 59 per cent of the mobile game players.
– In UK 69 per cent of male and 31 per cent of females of age group 25- 44 years play strategy games which is 69 per cent of the mobile game players
-In Japan 68 per cent of male and 32 per cent of females of age group 25- 44 years play strategy games which is 66 per cent of the mobile game players
-In South Korea 65 per cent of male and 35 per cent of females of age group 25- 44 years play strategy games which is 60 per cent of the mobile game players - RPG gaming playership in Japan is highest with 43 per cent, followed by South korea is 40 per cent, US is 30 per cent, and UK is 27 per cent.
- Among 65 per cent of RPG players in US 62 per cent are male and 38 per cent are female with age group between 18 to34 years. Whereas in UK among 68 per cent of RPG players 63 percent are male and 37 per cent are female with age group between 25-44 years.
- 68 per cent of respondents in US play RPG games over thirty mins in a session whereas in UK is 55 per cent.
- Puzzle players are more likely to be female (example. nearly 75 per cent of Matching Puzzle players in the UK and US) and over the age of 35 (example 6 in 10 in the UK and US). Since these female players typically enjoy mobile games in between doing other things, they prefer games that can be played in short increments rather than in longer, more involved sessions (example over 7 in 10 players prefer shorter sessions).
- There’s an appetite for more social activity within Hyper- Casual games with 67 per cent of players in the UK and 74 per cent of players in the US expressing interest in activities such as communicating with gaming companies and other players online about. Hyper-Casual games and checking out other players’ high scores on a leaderboard.
- In Japan and South Korea, RPG is the top genre in which players make in-app purchases. Compared to other markets, players in these countries are also more likely to make a monthly purchase with 10.9 per cent in South Korea and 9.3 per cent in Japan having done so (compared to 5.4 per cent of RPG players in the UK).
- From an ad preferences’ perspective, over 6 in 10 Strategy players across the US, UK, South Korea and Japan are willing to take the time to learn how to play a new game if an advertisement showcases the main gameplay and the characters/storyline.
- Matching Puzzle is consistently high across the US, UK, South Korea and Japan. Japan shows higher playership among RPG sub-genres like Puzzle RPG and Action RPG/MMORPG while the US and European markets show higher incidence rates of playing Card and Casino games.
- people are playing more genres than ever before. And it’s expected to continue that way.Only 24 per cent of US mobile game players say their next game will be the same genre, while this number drops to 10per cent among Japanese and South Korean players.