The popularity of games such as Angry Birds or Candy Crush, coupled with the rapid adoption of tablets and smartphones have ensured that gaming is now very much part of our everyday lives. On top of this, the quality of online games is improving rapidly, encouraging people to spend more time playing them. Gaming is now a mainstream activity and can no longer only be associated with lone teenagers hunched over consoles while locked in their bedrooms.
In fact, today’s gamers play everywhere and at all times during the day. They might start on their smartphones while commuting to work, continue on their desktop or laptop during the day, and go on playing on their tablets at home in the evening.
With iPads and other mobile devices (particularly Android-based systems) becoming cheaper and more widespread, and their users seeking out more opportunities to play games, in-browser gaming is exploding. In response, game developers are improving the in-game experience on these devices, and as such, people are tending to play less on consoles. Looking further ahead, it’s inevitable that more devices will develop to support this growing area and browser or app-based games will draw in the mass market as they offer the easiest entry point into gaming.
This is not to say that console gaming will disappear. Consoles still offer the best in-depth experience for things like one-person shooter games. But for puzzle games, racing games or other types of “bite-size” games, the quality is so good on PC or mobile that people are unlikely to look to consoles for similar games. There are even 3D worlds, such as Minecraft, coming up for PC and mobiles, which demonstrates how much the experience is improving.
While this may seem like bad news for console manufacturers, it’s great news for advertisers.
The first things we need to do – particularly when talking about gaming from an advertising perspective – is make the distinction between casual and hardcore gaming. Casual games hold the most interest for brands as hardcore gamers do not want to be distracted while playing their games. We define casual gaming as any game where the only equipment a user needs is a browser and an internet connection. Casual gaming is typically used for short bursts or “snack” moments of entertainment and stress relief.
Despite huge growth in this area, gaming is still seen by marketers as having a niche audience. A look at the figures, however, underlines the fact that this is far from the truth. July stats from comScore showed that of the entire internet population of 1.6 billion people, on average 703 million – or 44% – of these people play online games. This percentage is only going to grow as online gaming content becomes more readily available, internet penetration increases and gaming-compatible mobile devices become even more prevalent.
Furthermore, comScore and industry stats in general show that the penetration of online games is something that crosses both gender and age divides. This is also highlighted by another recent set of stats from the Netherlands National Gamers Survey conducted by Newzoo, which showed that there was only one demographic where gaming didn’t have over 50% penetration, and that was men over 50… but even that segment saw 45% penetration.
If that wasn’t enough, gaming sites produce better return on investment for online advertisers. A report by MediaBrix, an ad network for mobile and social gaming, shows that video ads associated with gaming sites generate an average Click Through Rate (CTR) of 3%, which is roughly 30 times higher than the CTR of standard online advertising campaigns (0.10%) and Facebook ads (0.03% to 0.11%).
Essentially, gaming sites are producing better engagement rates with online advertising than other entertainment sites because the audiences are both more engaged and they are spending more time on site.
Across our platforms we’re seeing an average session time of around 30 – 40 minutes. Compare this with the average news site where around 80% of visitors are on site for less than five minutes, or even YouTube, which claims an average visit time of around 15-16 minutes, and it’s clear why gaming sites have the edge.
The main reasons people visit gaming sites include entertaining themselves, gaining a quick sense of achievement, relaxing, unwinding and looking to get away from things. This means they also tend to be in a more positive and relaxed frame of mind than those visiting other types of entertainment sites, and this makes them more responsive to advertising. And video, of course, works particularly well in this case as the format is so similar to the gaming environment.
The reality is that mobile devices and the internet have transformed the gaming sector. Online casual gaming is now the mass-market media of the day, with broad demographic appeal. With access to a wide range of free browser- and app-based games that are increasing in quality on an almost daily basis, tablets and other mobile device offer advertisers the perfect opportunity to exploit this rapidly expanding market at scale and reach a powerful community that is much more than just teenagers locked in their rooms.
By Peter Driessen, Co-Founder of Spil Games.
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