Global Gaming Trends UK: Web & Social
Already a high value and extremely competitive marketplace, video gaming was one of the few sectors to thrive during the coronavirus pandemic.
Introduction
Already a high value and extremely competitive marketplace, video gaming was one of the few sectors to thrive during the coronavirus pandemic.
With millions of people forced to stay at home for months, the makers of video games saw player numbers soar and sales broke records as people sought what entertainment they could whilst unable to go outside.
What makes gaming of particular value to the media industry is that it plays two key roles – the promotion of games and games brands themselves, and leveraging gaming as a medium for advertising purposes.
Using findings data from our TGI Global Quick View consumer data – collected between March and May this year as coronavirus exploded worldwide and many countries went into lockdown - of the consumer behaviour of internet-using adults in 25 markets worldwide, we can assess engagement with gaming today, including how consumers feel their gaming habits have changed due to the pandemic.
We can also assess where the best opportunities lie for marketers seeking to tap into this thriving sector.
Global Trends
Who are the gamers and how has Covid impacted behaviour?
Who are the gamers and how has Covid impacted behaviour?
Today, 63% of adults today say that they play video games, although this ranges from under 50% of consumers in some markets to almost 90% in others. The countries where gaming is most popular are Indonesia (87% play video games), Taiwan (81%), India (79%) and China (78%). Netherlands, Japan and Sweden have lowest usage.
Of the 63% of adults who play video games, 10% of them play more than five hours per day. The markets with the highest proportion of these heavy gamers is slightly different to those with the highest penetration for video gaming generally, with Taiwan (18% of their gamers play this often) top, the USA (15%) coming in second highest and Indonesia pushed into third (14%).
Huge change in gaming habits during the pandemic
39% of gamers say their video games playing habits have changed due to the coronavirus pandemic, whilst 10% expect that their behaviour in this respect will change (fieldwork for this study was conducted between March and May 2020), indicating huge behavioural shift in a short space of time.
There are also some big variations in changing video gaming behaviour in markets that took differing approaches to pandemic-related lockdown. In Spain, where a thorough and lengthy lockdown was undertaken, 49% of gamers felt their gaming behaviour had changed, whereas in Sweden, where there was no full lockdown, only 21% felt this was the case and only 4% expected their behaviour to change (compared to 9% in Spain).
Time to forget the outdated gamer stereotypes
For some still today the stereotypical go-to image of the hardcore gamer is a moody teenager in a darkened bedroom playing on their games console all hours of the day. In actual fact when it comes to most used gaming devices today it is smartphones that lead the way, by some distance. 69% of gamers use their smartphone for gaming, this is followed by desktop/laptop computer (48%), games console (39%), tablet computer (23%) and handheld consoles (12%).
The demographic stereotype of the gamer is equally wide of the mark today. Whilst there is a bias towards men, it is not huge, with 44% of all gamers women. Similarly, TGI Global Quick View data reveals relatively little variation in gaming by age. Those aged 16-24 represent less than a quarter of all gamers, with those aged 35-44 representing a similar proportion.
Global Trends
Top devices, games and engagement inspiration
Top devices, games and engagement inspiration
The most used gaming brands will be familiar to many of us, comprising PlayStation (used by 41% of gamers), Nintendo (26%) and Xbox (26%). Similarly, big-brand online gaming networks are popular with gamers, with mobile gaming networks used by 27% of gamers, PlayStation networks used by 25%, Steam by 18% and XBOX Live by 17%.
Top games played ‘in the last month’ are long-serving franchises Candy Crush (27% of gamers), FIFA (23%) and Call of Duty (21%). But this varies by country. In the US, Grand Theft Auto is in the top three most played games, with FIFA pushed a fair way down the list (reflecting lower interest in soccer in the US).
Whilst in Taiwan – one of the most gaming obsessed nations – League of Legends and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds join Candy Crush in the top three most played games.
Online a key place to engage gamers
Video gamers are more likely than other adults to engage heavily in a variety of online activities. They are 27% more likely to use LinkedIn several times a day, 24% more likely to spend more than five hours a day viewing paid video streaming and also 26% more likely to spend five or more hours a day listening to music streaming services.
They are also more likely than the average adult to undertake a range of activities online, including gambling, dating and buying TV shows or films.
Beyond online, gamers are also significantly more likely to be heavy users of print media compared to the average internet-using adult. TGI Global Quick View consumer data reveals they are 24% more likely to be heavy consumers of print magazines and 22% more likely to be heavy users of print newspapers.
Spotlight on Great Britain
Fluctuating gamer engagement and top devices used
Fluctuating gamer engagement and top devices used
Our Great Britain TGI consumer data reveals that when it comes to gaming, 63% of adults in Great Britain claim to play games of some sort.
Over a fifth (equating to seven million adults) play games every day, whilst 13% of gamers say they spend more than five hours each weekday gaming and 15% spend this much time doing so at weekends.
Around a quarter of gamers particularly engaged with it as a hobby
24% of gaming adults claim that playing video games is their favourite pastime (compared to 16% of adults as a whole) and 24% say they like to keep up with the latest news and developments in the video games industry.
Gamers can be very different from each other - one size does not fit all
Our GB TGI consumer data includes a segmentation of gamers, revealing different types of engagement with gaming, which will inform their value and how they need to be engaged by advertisers.
This shows that almost half of gamers are either Low Tech Puzzlers or Mobile Casuals. These are far from the hardcore tech savvy gaming stereotype. Indeed, Low-Tech Puzzlers are casual gamers who generally like to dip in and out of puzzle games, mostly on their PC. Mobile Casuals also take a casual approach to gaming and tend to engage on free games they can access on their mobile.
By contrast, the next biggest group, Absolute Gamers, live and breathe gaming in their attitudes and behaviour and tend to consume all manner of game types. Console Kings are especially fond of playing big blockbuster games on their home games console, whilst also having a range of interests beyond gaming.
One of the smaller groups are the App-store Addicts, who aren’t really into gaming culture per se but will spend in particular on mobile games and in-app purchases to fuel their love of mobile gaming. Finally, Opinionated Fans are very much into gaming culture and enjoy streaming gameplays and having strong opinions on gaming, whilst at the same time not really spending much on gaming.
Smartphones are the leading means of playing games
As we saw at a global level, smartphones are the leading device for gaming activity in Britain. Almost half of adults who indulge in gaming do so through a smartphone (47%), whilst 38% use games consoles and 31% a desktop or laptop computer.
What makes consoles unique amongst devices used for gaming is that they are specifically built for the purpose of gaming and as such their sales are of particular interest to those in the gaming industry.
Spotlight on Great Britain
Engaging British gamers
Engaging British Gamers
Within GB TGI data collected at the very end of June and start of July this year, we asked consumers if they were looking to buy a video game console in the next three months.
This revealed that 1.4 million adults were looking to do so – a potentially highly lucrative group to target given not only the high cost of consoles but also how they tie the owner in to the brand and a particular set of games, hardware etc.
One potentially very effective way of engaging this target is leveraging some of the 2.4 million adults who believe it very likely they can convince others with their views on computer and console gaming, who are almost twice as likely as the average video gamer player to be seeking to imminently buy a new console.
Engagement of gamers with in-game advertising could be improved
In terms of how receptive gamers are to in-game advertising, only a modest 17% feel that advertising within video or computer gameplay enhances the realism of the game, indicating the industry needs to look more closely at how it can positively integrate advertising into gameplay.
Internet and video key ways to engage gamers
Beyond gaming, the media that gamers are particularly likely to be amongst the heaviest (top fifth of consumers of) compared to the average adult are mobile internet (33% more likely), Video on Demand (24% more likely) and the internet (22% more likely).
Digging down deeper, if we look at the metered online data on GB TGI for which apps are particularly likely to have been used by gamers ‘in the last seven days’ compared to the average adult who uses a smartphone to access the internet, we can see that top apps include gaming platforms and dining services, thus revealing potentially efficient gaming-fast food promotional synergies.
Looking specifically at the PC and mobile sites of which gamers are heavy users, using the online metered data on GB TGI, we can see that the top destinations are steampowered.com, gamespot.com and ign.com – all of which are used heavily by 2% of gamers. Whilst overall penetration is low, these are the sites on which hardcore gamers are especially engaged.
Top considerations for gamers when buying games
In terms of the top factors influencing the decision of gamers to play or purchase specific games, at the top is sale/price (35%), followed by graphical quality/realism (19%) and amount of content/size of game (13%). These are features advertisers would do well to emphasise where possible, given their relative impact on gaming purchase decisions.
