1. Inside India’s Gamers
Trends emerging within the Indian gaming ecosystem
Sohel Taiyab Golwalla – Associate Director, Products
Anshul Singhal – Vice President, Products

2. Introduction
Driven by the massive influx of cost effective smartphones, the Indian
mobile gaming ecosystem has been expanding at a rapid pace. According to
IDC, in the Q2 of 2016 alone, 27.5 million devices were sold, which is up 17%
from the previous quarter.
Various market estimates peg the Indian smartphone market at about 220 -
250 million devices, which make it the 2nd largest after China. This
tremendous growth in the smartphone numbers and the evolution of the
device itself from a calling and messaging device to a full-fledged media
consumption and utility powerhouse; is sure to provide the necessary
impetus that the Indian gaming market was awaiting.
This report examines a lot of interesting data points unearthed from our
annual mobile gamer survey and tries to bring forth some key qualitative
insights around the Indian gamers’ behavior, their preferences, devices etc.

3. Methodology
The source of this report are two online surveys conducted by gamesbond;
on gamers who downloaded at least one game from Mauj platforms and
game developers registered with Mauj operated App stores.
The total respondents who completed the gamer survey stood at 1,336 and
the survey was conducted over a time period of 6 weeks in the months of
Sep’ 16 and Oct’16, the total respondents who completed the game developer
survey stood at 202 and the survey was conducted over a period of 4 weeks
in the months of Sep’16 to Oct’16.
Gamer survey - september 2016 to october 2016 ( 1336 people )
Game developer survey - september 2016 to october 2016 ( 222 people )
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4. 50% OF INDIAN GAMERS HAVE A MONTHLY
MOBILE SPEND OF RS. 200/- OR LESS
In terms of overall demographics, about 40% of the gamers are students, and
the employed and self-employed professionals are about 33% of the gamers.
In terms of where they are coming from, the spread is quite even across
metros and non-metros.
The average mobile prepaid/ postpaid spends are at the lower end of the
spectrum with nearly 50% of the gamers spending upto Rs. 200 per month
and nearly 30% gamers spending anywhere between Rs. 200 - Rs. 500 per
month.
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Indian gamer occupation
39%
Student Employed Self
Employed
Own
Business
Homemaker Others
28% 6% 10% 10% 7%
28%
18%
28%
17%
9%
Monthly Mobile spend
Upto
Rs. 100
Rs. 100 to
Rs. 200
Rs. 200 to
Rs. 500
Rs. 500 to
Rs. 1000
More than
Rs. 1000

5. INDIAN GAMERS USE ENTRY LEVEL
SMARTPHONES WITH LIMITED HARDWARE
CAPABILITIES
A bulk of the smartphone influx into India has been spearheaded by a
plethora of super cost effective devices (most of them in the sub Rs. 10,000
range). While this has unlocked tremendous value for the mobile gaming
ecosystem by unleashing a whole new set of Indian gamers, it also
increasingly poses deeper challenges for the game developer community to
be sensitized and aware of the kind of devices the Indian gamers are using
and optimizing for them.
The study attempted to understand the nature of devices currently used by
gamers, the issues that gamers face with the device and what could be
important for gamers while buying a mobile device.
Some of the key facets examined were as follows:
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6. 4
Device internal storage spread across gaming devices
8 GB
or less
40%
8 GB
to 16 GB
26%
16 GB
to 32 GB
More than
32 GB
Not
sure
20%
5% 9%
Device storage
The internal memory of the mobile phone becomes an important factor in
determining how the phone behaves overall when it’s put under some
stress. It especially comes under the scanner while playing games.
Of the total users who participated in the gamer survey, about 70% use a
mobile phone with an internal memory of 16 GB or less, with about 40%
having an internal device storage of 8 GB or lesser. This is an important
point as while 8 GB might seem enough storage space, however, if you layer
it with the space that the android OS will take along with some 2-3 essential
apps that most gamers carry on their devices, the effective usable space with
a gamer who has an 8 GB internal storage will probably be only 1-2 GB.

7. External SD card spread used by gamers
8 GB 16 GB 32 GB 64 GB
or more
No
SD card
32% 28%
15%
5%
20%
Device storage
What this translates into; is a massive need for expanding the devices with
an additional storage through an external SD card; and the analysis
indicates that nearly 80% of the gamers end up using an external SD card to
expand storage on their devices.
Even amongst the gamers who use an external SD card, more than 30% just
have an additional 8 GB of additional storage space. 20% of gamers don’t
have an external memory card on their devices
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8. Device costs
The device costs have been steadily going down owing to the massive influx
of cheap smartphone devices with low hardware specifications which are
not optimized for gaming. The analysis indicates that about 30% of the
gamers are using a smartphone that costs Rs. 5,000 or less. Devices that cost
less than Rs. 5,000/- tend to have specifications of 512 MB RAM, low end
processors and 4/8 GB internal storage, these specifications pose real
challenges for the game developer community as the games need to be light
on memory and device resources and highly optimized for low end
processors.
Case in point is the recent EA Sports launch of a FIFA mobile soccer version
of their highly popular FIFA Soccer franchise targeted at users with limited
phone memory and low mobile data usage. The game has gained over 5M
downloads and continues to gain traction. The game size is ~65 MB, which is
95% smaller than their 1.4 GB FIFA 16 Soccer game.
Mobile data is expensive in India— and lightweight games reduce the cost
burden that prevents those with mobile data constraints in India from using
certain games. As developers look to capture users across India, they will
have to design their games to be inherently smaller, faster, and lighter—not
just create lightweight copies of heavier games.
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Device cost
Below
Rs. 5000
Rs. 5000 to
Rs. 10000
Rs. 10000 to
Rs. 15000
More than
Rs. 15000
28%
37%
21%
14%

9. 2/3RD OF INDIAN MALE MOBILE GAMERS ARE
MULTI-PLATFORM GAMERS
Another interesting facet observed is the multiplatform behavior amongst
power gamers. 2/3rds of the male gamers are multiplatform gamers ; i.e.
they play games on multiple platforms like PC, laptops, gaming consoles and
even in gaming parlors; apart from playing on their mobile phones.
Whereas, 50% of the women displayed multiplatform gaming behavior.
On an average the Multiplatform gamers (MPGs) end up spending double
the time on games vis-a-vis Mobile only gamers (MOGs) and are willing to
pay 27% more for mobile games.
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Multiplatform gamers Mobile only gamers
Multiplatform gaming behavior
PC/ Laptop Tablet Gaming console Gamingparlour Only mobile
phones
58%
23% 13% 5% 37%

10. GAMES HAVE TO CONSTANTLY COMPETE TO
STAY AMONGST THE TOP 5 GAMES ON THE
GAMER’S DEVICE
Most Indian gamers have 5 or less games installed on their mobile devices at
a given point of time. Low cost devices coupled with low internal storage
capacities on devices of Indian mobile gamers do not allow a gamer to keep
a lot of games on the device since phone performance continually degrade
owing to low device space, this could possibly hint at low retention levels for
a lot of non-compelling games.
About 12% of the games have 10 or more games on their devices
In terms of frequency, about 59% find time to play games every day, and 44%
actually have more than 30 minute playing sessions.
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No. of games installed on devices
Less than 2 3 to 5 6 to 9 10 or more I am not sure
25% 43% 18% 12% 3%

11. 1/3RD POWER GAMERS FIND IN-GAME ADS
AS A POWERFUL SOURCE OF DISCOVERING
NEW GAMES
About 13% of the overall gamers came across as power gamers who
download 10 or more games in a month.
This is a small but a predominantly young cohort; with about 75% of them
are under 25 years of age. Even this cohort of heavy gamers face device
storage as an issue and 85% of them tend to augment their devices with an
external memory card.
As opposed to the overall gamers, a much higher proportion of this group
(75%) plays games every day and for 80% of them the session times are more
than 30 minutes at one go.
Another interesting aspect about this cohort is that they fundamentally
believe they are good at gaming; with about 70% of them saying that they
are very good and competitive at playing any game.
One important finding from this group was their understanding of the
in-game ads, almost 1/3rd of them find in-game ads useful either as a means
to discover new games or to aid in level progression through collection of
coins etc.
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No. of games downloaded in month
Less than 26 to 9 3 to 5
45%10% 33%
10 or more
13%

12. WOMEN GAMERS ARE OUTPLAYING
MEN IN INDIA
Women gamers in India demonstrate a distinctly divergent
demographic trend from the male gamers.
59% of the women gamers are in the age group of 30 and above; and off that
46% were homemakers - vis-a-vis only 24% of male gamers were above 30
and almost 50% of them were students . This divergent demographic trend
has implications on various parameters of women gamers like the games
they play, the session times for which they play and where they typically
play mobile games.
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46%
Homemakers
59% of the women gamers are in
the age group of 30 and above
50%
Students
24% of male gamers age
were above 30 and above

13. WOMEN GAMERS ARE OUTPLAYING
MEN IN INDIA
63% of the women gamers play games every day and 98% of them play
games at home. 98% of women gamers said they play mobile games at home,
while 25% said they played while commuting.
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63% of the women gamers
play games every day
25% women play games while commuting

14. WOMEN GAMERS ARE OUTPLAYING
MEN IN INDIA
The biggest reason for women to quit playing a game is when they are stuck
at a level for too long - 38% women quit playing a game when they get stuck
for too long; while for 54% of the men the biggest reason is when they've
crossed all levels in the game.
Degradation in phone performance is the single biggest reason that leads
them to delete a game for both men and women.
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38%
Women quit playing a game Men quit playing a game
54%

15. 53% OF THE GAME DEVELOPERS LOCALIZE
THEIR GAMES
Most game developers see value in localizing their games as per the market
they are launching in. However, the extent of localization varies widely.
The preferred parameters on which the developers typically localize are:
i) Changing textual instructions in local language
ii) Localizing game themes and characters and
iii) Game audio in local language
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No. of games downloaded in month
We don't localize
47%
We localize our games to
support publisher request
10%
We distribute multi-country
and localize most of our games
43%

16. 61% GAME DEVELOPERS FEEL THE NEED FOR
BETTER DISTRIBUTION AND MONETIZATION
PLATFORMS
A high percentage of the game developers (42%) agreed that a gaming studio
is a tough business to be in and needs a lot of patience and funding to sustain
until they turn profitable.
In general, they feel that a lot needs to change in the ecosystem for game
studios to do better. The top 3 things that they felt needed to change in the
ecosystem were:
Nearly 80% of the game developers indicated that they prefer developing
their games targeted at North America and Europe to benefit from the better
monetization potential in those markets.
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61%
Better distribution
and monetization platform
for games
22%
Financial support
for the game development
industry
12%
Financial support
for the game development
industry

17. 30% OF THE GAME DEVELOPERS FEEL THAT IT
IS CRITICAL FOR THEM TO GET GOOGLE PLAY
FEATURING ELSE THEIR GAME WON’T SURVIVE
While almost every game developer wants to get featured on google play, in
the Indian context 30% game developers feel that unless their game gets
featured, their game is sure to die out sooner rather than later.
In a market like ours where almost 85% of the developers have android as
their priority platform; this creates a massive demand – supply mismatch as
only a small fraction of games end up getting featured. This also makes a
compelling case for most game developers to rely on alternate app stores to
reach their customers.
Some of the developers find immense value in the unique featuring,
curation and localization opportunities that some of the alternate app stores
offer. 60% of the developers cited Incremental downloads outside of Google
play/iTunes as the primary benefit cited in support of using alternate app
stores; while 26% felt that it was easier get featured on alternate app stores
vis-à-vis the google play
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30%
It is critical
5%
I don’t care much
40%
Important else it will
take a long time
25%
Its good to get featured
Importance of Google play featuring

18. Summary
The Indian gaming ecosystem offers a sizable and distinctly unique
opportunity for game developers. Game developers looking to make
successful games in the Indian context need to understand and be conscious
about the nuances of the Indian gaming consumer, their limitations with
regards to the devices they have, their wallet sizes etc. and create a tailor
made gaming experience around the Indian gamer.
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