How Corona changed Gaming

It will come as no surprise that during the lockdown many people picked up their phones to pass the time at home. Social media apps in particular experienced a never seen before surge of active users as people seek out to connect digitally, but mobile games, too, saw an uplift in player numbers. Like everywhere else, Covid-19 changed the mobile gaming industry. How, and to what extent will be discussed in this article. This article is heavily based on Unity’s Covid-19’s impact on the gaming industry report.

Timing

Usually, when spring comes around people begin putting their phones aside to spend time outside with friends and family. This year, however, Covid-19 came around and brought with it a lot of time spent at home. Chinese New Year - already a good time for gaming studios - coincided with the Covid lockdown this year. According to Unity’s report the resulting surge in active users increased by an additional 51%. So, rather than seeing a drop in daily active users (DAU) like every other year, studios gained additional players. 

This graph shows how, as soon as a lockdown was introduced in a country, the result was a spike in gaming volume. Part of the spike is due to old players simply spending more time on the phone. A large portion though can be attributed to new players, who behave differently from “original” players. Unity labelled these new players “Pandemic players”.Pandemic players are 27.5% more likely to convert into paying players but generate less revenue on average. Pandemic players are also less likely to follow an ad-suggestion of a new game. 

Revenue

The effective cost per thousand ad impressions (CPM) decreased by 3% since most businesses lost revenue in times of Corona and had to reduce their marketing expenses. The price drop was small enough that studios didn’t suffer a decrease in ad income since views are reported to have risen by 57%. Not only were more users seeing ads, more players also chose to watch ads. In Unity’s 2020 Mobile Game Monetization Report they found an average of 3.3 ads were watched per user. During the lockdown, this number rose to 3.8. The small difference translates to a significant income surge when multiplied by the millions of players this applies to. With the increase in ads and ad views, revenue increased by 59% (compared to 2019). Simultaneously, cost per install has dropped a significant 33%.  With mobile game revenues higher and more people wanting to spend time on their phones acquiring new users is easier - and cheaper  - than ever.

What and how is being played?

With lockdown making face-to-face interactions more difficult, many people shift to socialising digitally. The 83% increase in social media app traffic is thus no surprise. “Commuter” apps, games with short play sessions that are easy to play on a bus or in the subway, on the other hand are being played less. At the same time mid- to hardcore games gained popularity, with engagement rising 39%. Most importantly, more and more players are downloading - and using - more than one game at the same time. 

Users are now also 34% more likely to click on an ad - be it because regular shops are closed or because they have more time at their hands to shop online.

Users are also showing less difference in their playing habits weekend vs. weekdays. Previously a clear distinction could be made between the two but while a lockdown is in place the volume of gaming is similar. 

Gaming as a community

Gaming is no longer a hobby for lonely people sitting in a room. It is a way to bring people together across large distances. Most know that Facebook offers games on their platform that engage and connect users from all over the world. In their 2019 Facebook Gaming Report, Facebook stated that “each month, 700 million people come to Facebook to play games, watch gaming videos or engage in a gaming group”. For those users, termed “community gamers”, it is not only about the game, but also about being connected with other people and being part of a community. “Gaming groups are among the largest and most engaged communities on Facebook, with over 100 million monthly active users in 340,000 gaming Groups.”, the report says. While no current information on the “community gamers” during the pandemic is available, and we can only speculate, it is fairly safe to say that many casual gamers could have converted to “community gamers” in lieu of other social activities. 

This is especially relevant when looking at the likelihood of users spending money on a game, since across the world community players are much more likely to do so than casual gamers.

Community gamers are also 2-4x more likely to spend a large amount of time playing the game (3+ hours a day), meaning more revenue earned through in-game ads. 

Final words

Some of the changes explored in this report could very likely be permanent. Time spent gaming will drop once the Covid-19 crisis is over, but by then there will be many users that are no longer new and will continue to play. Playing together, as a community, will also continue to grow as it offers a unique opportunity to connect to people, regardless of distance. By the end of this year 2.5 billion people are projected to be active mobile gamers and by 2023 the number of gamers will rise to over 3 billion. The mobile gaming industry currently has a revenue greater than the GDP of Costa Rica and by 2021 it is projected to cross the 100 billion dollar threshold. Covid-19 has shown us what our current technology can do: play a game of scrabble with a family member that lives hours away, practice language skills by forming a group with a gamer from Spain, or have a nice talk over a glass of wine with a friend via webcam. It has forced us to confront new opportunities, and many are bound to stick.