46% female gamers are homemakers: White paper on Indian gaming ecosystem finds

The gaming sector in the country has found a new breather on life with the growth of the smartphone market in India. Mobile media company, Manuj Mobile in association with NASSCOM Gaming Forum has released a white paper titled ‘Inside India’s Gamers’ focussing on the trends within India’s gaming ecosystem. The survey was conducted with mobile gamers and developers and the surveys were conducted by Gamesbond, a premium marketplace for gaming.

The study has found that limited internal and external mobile phone memory along with expensive mobile data is majorly what keeps people from downloading or playing certain games. Thus implying that game developers should focus on developing games that are inherently smaller, lighter and faster – to allow users to play games whenever, wherever, even with limited memory and low data usage.

Interestingly, the study also found that compared to their male counterparts, female gamers demonstrate distinctly divergent demographic trends. Indications suggest that only 25% women play games during their commute while 98% play while at home. About 59% of female gamers fall between the age group of 30 and above and of that 46% are homemakers.

The report further indicates that two-third of the male power gamers play on multiple gaming platforms including PC, laptops, gaming consoles and gaming parlors as well. While 50% women displayed multi-platform gaming as well.

The majority, 61% of developers feel that India needs better distribution and monetisation platforms for games and 80% of game developers prefer to distribute their games in North America and Europe for better monetisation potentials. Even though Indian skill and allied costs are lower, the lack of a structured system makes it a challenge. 12% put across the need for more consumers to be pay for in-app purchases and 22% felt that there is a lack of financial support in the game development industry.

Badri Sanjeevi, Co-founder and CEO, Mauj Mobile, said, “India has the potential to witness a massive growth in the gaming sphere and it offers a sizeable and distinctly unique opportunity for game developers.” He further added, “The developers should understand and be aware about the nuances of the Indian gaming consumer, their limitations with regards to the devices they use, their wallet sizes, etc., and accordingly come up with a tailor-made gaming experience.”

Rajesh Rao, Chairman- NASSCOM Gaming Forum said, “Some of the interesting insights presented in the White Paper include the gaming behaviour of men and women and the monthly mobile spend of Indian gamers. That should help developers fine tune their product offerings, and hopefully better monetize their games and apps.”

You could check out all survey findings here.