- Who Plays Mobile Games: Player Insights to help developers Win
- Originally written by Allen Bevans
- The Nuggets translation Project
- Permanent link to this article: github.com/xitu/gold-m…
- Translator: Lai,
- Proofread by hanliuxin5
The phenomenal growth of mobile gaming around the world shows that more and more people are participating in gaming experiences that were previously only available to users of other platforms such as PCS and consoles. This expansion means that gamers are more diverse in their characteristics, needs, and motivations. However, this diversity of players is not only a great opportunity, but also a great challenge. In order to create games that stimulate and appeal to this diverse audience, developers need to have a deep and comprehensive understanding of their current and potential future audience.
To help developers build this insight, Google Play commissioned SKIM to conduct a survey to understand the differences and similarities between the needs, behaviors, and behaviors of mobile gamers around the world. Initially, we conducted this research for internal use, but we believe our findings will be of value to the wider mobile game developer community. Who is playing mobile games?
We used to think of “gamers.” Now we think of “gamers.”
It’s easy to think of game players as one of two extreme groups — “hardcore” gamers who play complex, highly skilled games, and “casual” gamers who play low-difficulty, low-challenge games. These extremes are also linked to a range of demographic assumptions and stereotypes, such as that “hardcore” gamers tend to be young and male; “Casual” gamers tend to be older and female. The reality is that most players fall somewhere between these two extremes. On Google Play, we found that “players” rather than “gamers” helps us consider the full spectrum of gaming behavior rather than the extremes of stereotypes.
“Hardcore” and “casual” can be useful terms, but they are often branded with too many stereotypes to be realistic. Most gamers fall somewhere in between these two extremes, with most games combining features that can be classified as “hardcore” or “casual”.
The role that games play in players’ lives and their social behavior bring up the most familiar similarities and the most dramatic differences.
The first challenge we faced when considering the range of players was to create some form of ordering. How similar or different are the attitudes, needs, and behaviors of these millions of players when it comes to mobile gaming? In our survey of over 20,000 mobile gamers in eight markets, we asked a series of questions about different aspects of their gaming: How did they discover games? How important is the game to them? When and how to play the game? How games fit into their lives. We found that the issues that really differentiate groups of players focus on their social behavior and passion for the game.
Examples of social behavior include other people’s influence in game discovery and selection, and whether they play with other people, or as part of a community or alliance. Passion for games includes time spent playing games, their central place in their identity, and fan-like behaviors such as buying branded goods.
Based on these dimensions, we identified five different groups of players:
The five player groups mirror each other in terms of enthusiasm and social behavior.
These five player groups also have different behaviors that can be used to understand game preferences and motivations, and we’ve broken down these findings into four key points:
1. Demographic information is not the main factor contributing to the difference.
Once we have identified five player groups based on these dimensions, we begin to learn more about them in terms of who they are and how they behave. It is important to emphasize that there are demographic differences between these groups, but they are not the main cause of these group differences. Often, such distinctions are made mainly by life stage or gender, but this hides key commonalities and differences in the dimensions that really matter. There are a handful of younger “connected enthusiasts”, or even older “passive players”, but the main age group in both groups is 26-45. Similarly, there was only a slight male bias (just over 50%) for “avid online gamers” and “passive gamers.”
Summary of key demographics and drivers for each group
2. The player community uses a range of channels and influences to discover games.
Each group finds a summary of the game’s core impact
“Connected enthusiasts” use the widest range of channels to discover new games, but almost all the important ones involve other people, both in real life and online (such as YouTube). They are also the ones most likely to respond to in-app ads. In case of Playful Explorers, they are less socially dependent, discovering their games primarily from APP Store leaderboards, YouTube, in-app ads, and game ratings. Unsurprisingly, the factors of game discovery that influenced the “influenced players” and the “tentative followers” came from others, It could come from their friends, from seeing what other people are playing, from seeing what other people are playing on YouTube. “Passive players” are more likely to be influenced by charts and in-app ads, and they also have other sources of discovery — sources that are not included in the pre-assigned categories of player demographics surveys.
3. Player groups don’t correspond to one game type
When we asked players what types of games they played, we found some similarities across all player groups. Puzzle and strategy games are universally appealing (except for “passive players”). We did find that certain types of games correspond to certain types of players.
The percentage of mobile game players in each demographic
“Online gamer”) play almost all types of games and are less likely to prefer a particular genre. “Fun-loving explorers” also tend to play a variety of games, but prefer action and adventure games. “Affected players” enjoy puzzle games, but also adventure, strategy and mini-games. “Early adopters” like card games, minigames and word games. Passive gamers only like puzzle games and card games.
4. The motivation for playing games is not just relaxation and boredom
Relaxation and boredom are common reasons why people play games. However, we have found that there are more enforceable reasons to participate in different groups of games. In particular, “online gamers” play games for reasons of progress, to test their skills (both their own and those of others), and to reward themselves for the pleasure of playing. “Fun-loving explorers” and “affected players” also see competition and progress as rewards, but are less concerned with comparing skills to others. “Early followers” and “passive players” are less likely to focus on the fun of a game.
Meaning to developers
- Consider the various game needs of your players. Unless your game is aimed at a specific demographic, don’t fall into demographic stereotypes. Instead, consider the different game needs that your game can fulfill and the important experiences it can provide.
- Consider player differences when designing a game or adding new features:
- Be clear: is this feature designed for a specific group of game players, or for the general audience?
- Get information: Get feedback from the target group of game players.
- Be specific: explain how a feature will change a particular aspect of these players’ experience, and why it matters to them.
- ** Customize your user acquisition strategy. Reach your target audience through the best marketing channels. Players of all types discover games through multiple channels, but if you’re customizing games for certain types of players, you should optimize your strategy by focusing on the channels they engage the most.
- Customize engagement strategies to stimulate your target audience. “Gamers” are interested in leaderboards and challenging communities, while “fun-loving explorers” are more interested in personal advancement. Use what is most meaningful to your players to help them love playing your game.
Get the full report Who’s playing mobile games? Let us know what you think. How reliable are these categories of gamers? What surprised you? What else would you like to know about these groups? Check out Google Play Apps & Games on Medium for more industry research, trends and ideas from the Google team about app and game developers.
What do you think?
What do you think?
Do you have any questions or thoughts about understanding mobile gamers? Keep the discussion going in the comments below, or tweet with the hashtag #AskPlayDev, and we’ll reply from @Googleplaydev, where we’ll regularly share news and tips on how to succeed in GooglePlay.
Thanks to Kelly Rice and SKIM Analytics.
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