Impact of Covid-19 On Mobile Game Industry

There is no doubt that the global pandemic of coronavirus has had adverse impacts on the global economy and businesses across the world and it continues to impact the world with its aftereffects. Millions of confirmed cases were recorded and for many industries, the outcomes were negative. Be it electronics, entertainment, e-commerce, or private companies. But when it comes to the mobile game app development industry, the results are quite the opposite.  

How did 2020 change the gaming world exactly? What were its effects?

Covid-19 affected the world’s business. Approximately 95% were affected negatively but the gaming industry falls in the 5% category. This duration of people’s lives gave them a lot of idle time, which they used to play games more than ever. For this reason, we see a lot of growth in spending and revenue across the world. Even though the impact of coronavirus wasn’t severe on the gaming industry, its impact on the lives of people is still painful.

During such challenging times, the role of the mobile gaming industry was to ensure relief to the audience. This activity reduces stress and provides entertainment, and social connection which was most needed in the period of global quarantine.
In this blog, we are discussing how Covid-19 has impacted the mobile game industry. Let’s have a look:

Covid-19 And Its Impacts On The Mobile Game Industry 

Mobile Game Downloads Are At Its Peak!

The mobile game industry saw a significant boost in the number of downloads worldwide in 2020. During this time, it crossed more than 13 billion downloads across the App Store and Google Play. Particularly in the beginning of March which went to 5.1 billion across two stores. While in April, it increased to 5.5 billion. People have been quarantined at their homes with a lack of sources to pass the time. It is causing increased anxiety and distress in them. Here, a professional mobile game app development company is helping them take their mind off the current situation by connecting them to their friends & family members online to play games. 

App Store Optimization

Since the start of the global pandemic, Covid-19 there has been a rise in certain categories including gaming. Within games, some titles have seen an uplift of 10% in organic impressions and others closer to 60%. As people were bound to stay at home, they were looking for new sources of entertainment. This led to more game downloads and got positive feedback with the app stores’ algorithms. When a user clicks on an app in a search, it sends signals to Apple and Google whether the app is relevant to the search or not so that the algorithm can increase the ranking for that app according to the keyword. The more interesting thing is that many developers made their games free during this time to improve their ranking. Compared to paid apps, keyword securing is quite easier in free apps as users can simply click on them and install them. It drives more clicks and ultimately results in a higher ranking than paid game apps.

Related Read: Pros And Cons Of Best Game Development Tools

Increased Customer Engagement

Almost every industry was struggling through the upside & downsides in running their business operations during this global pandemic. But when it came to the mobile gaming industry, various games were one of the most effective means of spending time for people staying at home. Lockdown brought a significant increase in mobile game downloads and ultimately resulted in increased customer engagement with mobile games especially in some mobile markets such as the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. The easier accessibility and portability of the games on mobile phones contributed to the leading dominance of the gaming industry in the market of industries.

Mobile Games Searches Are Increasing

During the Covid-19 outbreak, a significant increase in mobile game traffic has been experienced along with the overall website traffic, getting double month over month demonstrating an insane demand for gaming in the current scenario. The pages related to mobile game app development witnessed a surge of 857% with puzzle games at 590% and social games at 368%. Only idle games have not experienced any surge in traffic during this period as people are seeking more interactive and exciting games. This demand is predicted to continue for the longer run in the future and it also expects to see high volatility in the top lists for respective app stores as people are constantly looking for new titles.

Boost In Revenue

The global pandemic outbreak has brought popularity to several games, such as Ludo, Snake & Ladder, and many more which is ultimately increasing revenues for the mobile gaming sector. There is a significant increase in direct customer spending. Game revenues from Google Play reached up to $27.8 billion in 2020 and it is claimed 36.0% of the global revenue. When it comes to the app store, Apple expected to generate $38.8 billion in mobile games in 2020 which signifies half of the revenue of mobile games across the world. The remaining $10.6 billion will be generated from the Android app store. 

Final Verdict

With the Covid-19 outbreak, the popularity of mobile apps continued to increase further in the post-pandemic world and is expected to cross the $100 billion mark in the next coming years. The favorable markets for these mobile games are the Middle East and Southeast Asia, Northern Africa, and Latin America. Undoubtedly, the development of new mobile games is slightly going to increase and many organizations are getting benefits from them.