Mobile games are growing at a remarkable pace. All areas of gaming expanded with rapid growth, appealing to broader audiences, while cross-platform gaming, fueled by unprecedented smartphone technology and capabilities, also saw impressive prospects.

Following the rapid growth, the monetization by gaming publishers is also on the rise. Publishers have their strategies to make people pay for their games from freemium games, microtransactions and others.

PERIOD: 2017/8/23 〜 2017/12/2
RESPONDENTS: 500 INDONESIAN
SURVEY DONE BY LICORICE

By this survey, we would observe how the state of Indonesian smartphone gaming is. Do Indonesian love smartphone games? If so, do they willing to pay?

Q. How often do you play games on your smartphones? (SA)

When asked about the intensity of play, about 56% of respondents play smartphone games every day. Meanwhile, 10.58% of respondents play smartphone games 4-5 times a week, while other 8.18% play 2-3 times a week.

According to this result, we can see that most of Indonesian play smartphone games daily. It’s a good sign that Indonesian love mobile gaming.

Q. How many hours in a day do you play for video games? (SA)

Almost 20% of respondents play smartphone games for 10-30 minutes a day. There were 17.56% of respondents who play smartphone games for 30-60 minutes as well as who play for less than 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, 16.17% of respondents play smartphone games for 5-10 minutes. Though playing the games daily, however most Indonesian only play smartphone games for less than 1 hour.

Q. What game genre do you like the most? (MA)

The adventure was topped as the most favored genre by most respondents with a percentage of 35%. It’s always fun to deploy an adventure from 5 inches screen of your smartphone.

The second most-liked genre is shooter, with a percentage of 31.4%. With the rise of popularity, the shooter genre is also favored. Big games such as PUBG Mobile or Call of Duty Mobile had taken the interest of Indonesian players and even in a competitive stage.

The shooter is followed by a puzzle genre with a percentage of 26.75% Puzzles are simply classic which is effective for killing time in Indonesia’s frustrating traffic jams.

The other 25.35% of respondents loved action games followed by 16% who liked simulation games. The two categories also rose in prominence and played by several segments of gamers who had no time to play on a big screen because of their duty.

Q. How many games have you downloaded on your smartphone? (SA)

According to the result, respondents with a percentage of 21.56% have downloaded 2 games in their smartphones. Meanwhile,19.76% of respondents have downloaded 3 games.

Then, 17.96% of respondents only have 1 game in their smartphones. About 17 % of respondents have 4-5 games.

By this result, we can see that most Indonesian have 1-5 games in their smartphones.

Q. How many games do you play often? (SA)

Based on the survey, 26.55% only play 2 games often, while 24% of respondents play only one game often. There were 17.76% of respondents who play 3 games quite often. Most of the Indonesian play about 1-3 games often.

Q. What is your initial reason for downloading a game that you play often? (MA)

43.91% of respondents download a game because it is recommended by friends or family. Meanwhile, the other 33.9% responded to download a game from apps stores because of a piece of information or article on an internet page. 17.96% download a game because of its rank in the apps store, followed by 16% who download a game because of the game website’s information,

From this result, it is clear that most Indonesian download games because of family or friend’s recommendations and internet pages information. The two factors had a high impact on promoting games.

Q. Do you spend your money on game apps? (SA)

Despite their love for games, the number of Indonesian who are willing to pay for their games is still unsatisfactory. 38.72% of respondents never pay for games, while 14.57%  of respondents rarely pay for games.

Meanwhile, 29.54% of respondents sometimes do microtransaction for games while 17.17% often pay for games. This result shows that there are more Indonesian who are not willing to pay for games in their smartphone than who are willing to pay.

Q. How much do you pay for game apps in a month? (SA)

The amount of money paid by Indonesian for games is as unsatisfactory as the number of people who are willing to pay. About 38% of respondents don’t pay for their smartphone games.

If there were any who willing to pay for the games, they won’t pay that much.  25.74% of respondents only willing to pay Rp 30 thousand or less, while 24.55% of respondents willing to pay Rp 30 thousand to 100 thousand.

The Verdict

The survey shows that most of Indonesian play smartphone games daily. However, they only play smartphone games for less than 1 hour. They have 1-5 games on their smartphones, but there are only 1-3 games that are played often.

Most favored smartphone game genres are respectively adventure, shooter, puzzle, action, and simulation games. They download games because of family or friend’s recommendations and internet pages information.

Unfortunately, there are more Indonesian who are not willing to pay for games in their smartphone than who are willing to pay. We can see that Indonesian are reluctant to pay for their smartphone games. They are mostly only willing to pay less than Rp 100 thousand.

By this result, smartphone game publishers should prepare strategies to approach Indonesian consumers to be willing to pay for games. Since most of them only willing to pay less than Rp 100 thousand, splitting microtransactions for cheaper bundles might become an option.