After a long day of work or to take a little break from studying, we often turn to our mobile phones to play a quick game of Bubble Shooter or Candy Crush. Gone are the days where gaming was restricted to consoles or simple black and white graphics. We now play video games on our smartphones with detailed and impressive graphics. The mobile gaming industry has seen phenomenal growth, especially during the global pandemic. While people were forced to be stuck in their homes, the gaming downloads have increased by 75%, while the playtime consistently by 15%. In the first quarter of 2020, a massive increase was seen. The downloads increased by 132% just in March. Overall, the global gaming scene is taken by a storm.
The gaming community, too, has seen a gigantic shift in terms of new audiences. Trends in India show that 49% of gamers in India are women, and the average time an Indian woman has spent playing mobile games is 53 minutes per day.
Game studios have now started game development catering to a wide demographic. Most games are hypercasual games, which are free to play on Google Play and Ios app stores. This section has dominated different markets and the video games industry, with 80% installs. The app campaigns, too, have a targeted audience for the same. The game developers seem in no way, want to slow down the trend in 2021 and 2022, with new titles coming up every month.
What are the mobile game trends in 2021?
Throughout 2020, many changes occurred in the mobile game development department. Consequently, game publishers and brands have spent more on advertising investment and newer business models to attract more users. Video games content and hyper casual games have exponentially increased as the number of casual gamers increase. According to a report by reasearchandmarkets.com, the Indian gaming market was estimated to be valued at USD 1.02 billion the past year. It is expected to reach USD 4.88 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 20.83% over the forecast period 2021 – 2026. Currently, the segment stands at Rs 6,000 crores in FY21, accounting for 44 percent of the total online gaming revenues.
With one of the world’s largest youth populations, India is expected to become the leading market destination in the gaming industry worldwide. The growth in the country is because mobile gamers are primarily from the growing youth population, have higher disposable incomes, an introduction of new gaming genres, and the rapidly increasing number of smartphone and tablet users.
In mobile gaming, esports events, casual games, card games, and fantasy games, which have the money earning factor, are the genres most likely to benefit the global trends.
According to another report by a leading news publisher, the month of May in 2020 saw over 150 million downloads of games. There has been an increase of real money gamers above the age of 35.
Statistics also show that in India, women gamers spent 88 mins per day on action games, 42 mins on board games, 37 mins on card games, 43 mins on casual, and 47 mins on sports games than the previous year. The online gaming segment has proliferated in the last 3-4 years in India. It is now at par with more traditional forms of entertainment compared to the time spent on media and entertainment in a day.
Furthermore, the monthly active users in India for the top 100 mobile games and the time spent on online gaming are higher by 10-15 percent post the first lockdown in 2020, when the pandemic hit.
Why have the mobile gaming trends changed?
As per the Global Insights Report in 2021, the rise of mobile gaming is because it is a way of connecting with different people in the world. As more and more people were forced to stay at home, it became a way to socialize with new and existing gamers alike. The reason is clearly shown with the increased downloads of popular video games.
The core part of a game being a success depends not just on the revenue earned but also on the user acquisition. The smaller developers also enjoy huge success, thanks to evolved gaming techniques and marketing strategies.
Nowadays, gaming goes beyond genre, and the demographic scale is also shifting in different markets. Multiplayer games like animal crossing have also taken precedence during such times. More women and 45+ age groups are getting interested in gaming, as the worldwide trends show.
Gaming is not just restricted to playing them but also consuming related content. On social media platforms like Twitch and YouTube, gaming content continues to grow every year. According to the Global insights report, over 100 billion watch time hours of gaming content and 40 million active gaming channels on YouTube between October 2019 and September 2020 globally.
In other words, people took to online gaming to connect with friends and family, and mobile apps are coming up with games, new game titles were getting multiplayer features. This shows that gaming habits have also changed.
The video games industry has also developed amazingly. The key metrics in the development process include keeping the gamers’ attention by having a high retention rate. If the gamers are engaged with attractive visuals and dynamics, they will continue playing for a longer time.
One of the main reasons gamers enjoy mobile gaming is the chance to win real cash prizes and earn more money. Numerous online mobile games like MPL and eSports offer cash contests and tournaments where you can win cash.
Newer and advanced business models have introduced cloud gaming and other games as well.
Casual Mobile Games You can play on the MPL App
Over 60+ games are available on the MPL app, here are some popular titles you can explore and master on the app.
Bubble Shooter
Bubble Shooter is one of the popular titles in gaming. It involves popping the bubbles by matching three bubbles of the same color. You need to keep bursting the bubble and prevent them from reaching the bottom of the screen before the timer runs out. In between, the game also comes with different powerups to increase the score.
Carrom
A popular weekend game for all Indians, the mobile version is also an equally popular title. In the MPL app, you have to play against a random opponent in a 1v1 player mode with the online multiplayer mode for carrom. The objective is to pocket all the pawnpucks along with the queen to win the game. If you are assigned white pawnpucks, your opponent will have black ones.
8 Ball Pool
The next game is a famous one, which is played professionally across the world. The online version is usually played on a Pool Table as a singles or doubles game with cue sticks and 16 balls, 15 object balls, and one cue ball used to strike other balls. The cue game is one of MPL’s best online games in the market.
Ludo
The game garnered colossal attention during the pandemic, now has a dedicated fan base across the world. This board game hugely boosted the casual gaming sector. This mobile game can be played in leisure time between 2 to 4 players. The objective of Ludo is to race your four tokens from the starting point to the finishing point by rolling a dice. To win Ludo, the gamer can apply exciting strategies.
Build Up
This puzzle game is only available on the MPL app. Build Up game’s objective is to keep stacking 3D blocks on top of each other and as compactly as possible so that the tower height does not exceed the specified limit. This game requires your vision and reaction time and is one of the most played online games on the MPL Platform.
You can play this fun game and earn real cash too! Battle it out with multiple players online and transfer your winnings instantly to your account.
These are some of the games that you can find on the MPL. You can explore more than 60+ titles in Fantasy, Card game Arcade, Puzzle, Brain games, and more. There are easy to navigate, with instructions given in pictures or video. What’s even better, you can earn real cash in these games too! Download the MPL app now to know more.
