A new report suggests that women are more active in mobile gaming than men in India. Almost 95% of the total women surveyed were smartphone gamers and around 75% of them played for almost 2 hours. On the other hand, 87% of all Indian men surveyed were smartphone gamers.
Among women gamers, almost 33% of the crowd admitted to playing games on their phone several times a week. It was also revealed during the survey that women mostly play hyper-casual free-to-play games while men prefer graphically intensive games.
Women also purchase fewer in-game items than men and 66% of them prefer to download games with higher Google Play Store and Apple App Store ratings. They also take into account free hard disk space before downloading a game. Women also download games based on family and peers’ recommendations.
Women Prefer Candy Crush, Word Puzzle and Clash of Clans
The top three mobile games in India are PUBG Mobile, Candy Crush Saga, and Clash of Clans. Among these, women like to play the last two games and word puzzles. According to this survey, it can be understood that women like casual gaming over multiplayer Battle Royale games like Fortnite and PUBG Mobile.
Commenting on the survey results, Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, suggests that Indian smartphone game developers make more hyper-casual games to capture the attention of women gamers.
“(Women) They are hyper-casual gamers and very much underserved,” Ram said. While highlighting these findings as a “significant opportunity” for game developers.
The survey also highlighted that Indian women gamers mostly prefer mobile gaming and stay away from other gaming platforms. Other popular gaming platforms in India include PC gaming, PS4 and Xbox One.
Why Are There So Many Mobile Gamers In India
The CMR study suggests that the coming of powerful and affordable smartphones in India is responsible for the rise of mobile gamers in the country. Currently, within Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 price range, you can find a decently powerful smartphone capable of playing graphics-intensive games like PUBG mobile.
These phones usually have 4-6 GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 710 or 845 processors along with 64 or 128 GB of storage. These kinds of specifications are enough to play every game on the Play Store smoothly.
Factors that influence women to download a particular game mostly include recommendations from peers, friends and also ads on social media networks like Facebook.
The benefits of playing mobile games, according to women, include mood improvement, stress relief and an escape from everyday work pressure and deadlines. Women prefer Candy Crush, word puzzle and other mobile games in general because it gives them the freedom to play anywhere and at any time. It also helps that Candy Crush can be played offline which further enhances its popularity among women.
Satya Mohanty, Head-User Research Practice, CMR, said: “The demographic profiles of female gamers spans across age groups.” Women of all ages including work professionals and older women enjoy smartphone gaming. While the former plays during work to uplift their mood at work, the latter group of older women plays mobile games to keep up with the technology.
The survey also revealed that 40% of total women gamers played games during rest, while 30% of them enjoyed gaming while watching TV. Around 15% of women gamers prefer evening time as the best time to play on their smartphones. While a staggering 39% like to play games post-dinner at around 9-11 pm.
With a new, powerful and affordable smartphone launching every day in India, the penetration of smartphone gaming among Indian youth includes both men and women. The study suggests that women’s gamers, despite being hyperactive in this space, are severely underserved.
If developers take heed then more hyper-casual games and gaming tournaments of similar games like Candy Crush Saga or Word Puzzle can be hugely popular among women.
Also Read: Best Offline Android Games To Play [No Data Needed]
