Authored by MeiZhen Wang, Business Development Manager, Google Play Games Southeast Asia and Vinay Charaniya, Business Development Manager, Google Play Games India

Nurturing player communities is essential to building long-term loyalty. Developers across genres agree that building and nurturing their gaming communities is critical for the long-term engagement of their users in India and Southeast Asia (INSEA). Capturing user feedback via these communities enables them to make relevant product improvements. Additionally, inputs from user communities lead to validation and quantification of feature requests, thus helping game developers with their product roadmap.

From a player’s perspective, if their feedback has been incorporated into the game, it showcases a game developer’s willingness to cater to their specific requirements, making the players feel that their voice has been heard.

Challenges developers face when building a community in INSEA

Building a thriving gaming community in the INSEA region comes with its unique set of challenges:

1. Without local resources, catering to diverse languages and cultures can get significantly challenging.
2. Fierce competition exists among developers to attract and retain the best content creators in their community.
3. Finding the fine balance between user engagement and maintaining a positive environment for all is crucial. Users in the INSEA region tend to be quite vocal, and thus, developers should be open to accepting feedback as part of the process.

Effective strategies for establishing a robust gaming community

1. Leveraging content and creator

This has proven to be a powerful strategy for building a game community. The approach can vary significantly depending on your resource. Here are 3 broad approaches:

ㅤa) ㅤ‘Developer First’ approach: Developers focus on sharing content through their official social accounts, with a strong emphasis on direct interaction. Developers who prefer direct control over their content distribution would adopt this approach, but will require more resources to manage the channels.

ㅤb) ㅤ ‘Creator First’ approach: Developers who do not have the resources for local community management could adopt the ‘Creator First’ approach, where creators are the primary vehicle for game promotion and community-building. For example, Supercell’s main community and content driver in SEA is through their Creator Program, whereby local creators are incentivized to create content for Clash of Clans. Creators get exclusive sneak peaks to upcoming updates of the game, as well as invitations to test and play. As part of the Creator Program, frequent offline engagements also help foster strong relationships between creators and developers.

ㅤc) ㅤ ‘Hybrid’ Approach: This would be the most ideal approach once the developer has set up a strong foundation in the region by maintaining developer-owned platforms, while also nurturing a select group of creators dedicated to the game.

2. Localization

Localization is a crucial factor, especially in regions as diverse as SEA and India. This can extend beyond language to encompass culture and customs.

Each market has its unique cultural norms, necessitating a nuanced approach. For instance, the acceptance of content featuring LGBTQ+ themes varies across markets; the Philippines is more open than others, while it remains a taboo in markets like Indonesia and Malaysia. When it comes to selecting content creators, users in markets like Indonesia, Thailand, and India prefer local creators and content, while Philippines and Singapore are more accepting of global content or creators.

3. Engaging users

Top developers successfully engage users within their community to help build and grow it. Segmenting their most engaged users and connecting with them is often the first step for developers. Creating a structured calendar of activities based on local priorities is the next.

Developers often utilize the following strategies to engage with their users in the community:

• Communicating with users regularly, even if it’s a simple email reply, works well.
• Providing custom responses instead of AI-generated or bot-like responses is important, especially for reviews.
• Engaging with users in their own language or tone. For example, top developers often respond to their India users in Hinglish (a mix of Hindi+English).
• Acknowledging user comments makes them feel heard and showcases that developers are invested in their community.
• C-level teams respond to user comments directly on a periodic basis.

Apart from the above, if developers have the resources, creating content or in-game events based on user feedback can significantly enhance users’ sense of connection with the game community.

Leading content creators may also double up as top users within the community. Identifying them and incorporating their feedback becomes doubly important for developers. Supergaming, based in Pune, India, had one such eureka moment when they collaborated with one of India’s top content creators — TechnoGamerz. Not only did they incorporate his feedback in the gameplay of their newly launched game — Battlestars 4x4, they also introduced him as a playable character.

“Introducing Techno Gamerz as a playable character in Battle Stars was our strategic initiative to converge the world of gaming, player community, and content creators in a much more meaningful manner. It is not just about marketing our game launch but also about creators and community being at the forefront”

- Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Marketing Director at SuperGaming

4. Leveraging eSports

The impact of eSports on growing your game community is multifaceted as it caters to a diverse audience. Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB) has done this quite well in SEA, where they strategically harnessed the power of eSports to forge a robust and engaged game community. Here are some strategies that they used:

ㅤa) ㅤSegmentation: MLBB segments their eSports community into three main audiences:

• Hardcore enthusiasts, who ardently follow their favorite teams and engage regularly with content dedicated to the eSports scene. This group also tends to be the most loyal players in the game.
• Casual players, who view eSports content as a credible source for improving their in-game skills, making purchasing decisions and experimenting with new game elements such as skins and heroes.
• New audiences, who are non-players but get subsequently introduced to the game through eSports content and teams. They are a unique group of players who are intrigued by the personalities and stories of their favorite teams and players. Therefore, eSports serves as a platform to engage existing players and could also be a catalyst to attract new and diverse groups of players, if done right.

ㅤb) ㅤMeasuring success metrics: To measure the success of their eSports efforts, MLBB employs various metrics (apart from brand affinity and content creation), such as:

• Online viewership, particularly peak concurrent viewers, gauges the excitement during live broadcasts.
• User satisfaction, marked by minimal technical difficulties and interruptions, is another key indicator.
• Offline events are assessed based on viewership, ticket sales, and venue foot traffic.
• An increase in partnerships and collaborations with brands, including renowned names like ROG, showcases the expanding influence of eSports.
• eSports mentions in articles, content, and media partnerships signify their growing presence.

ㅤc) ㅤPartnerships & engagements: MLBB actively engages with professional eSports teams, players, and organizations. They’ve established dedicated league operations teams to liaise effectively with professional gamers, fostering feedback and information exchange for better collaboration. This partnership extends to various activities, including appearances in eSports trailers, interviews, tutorials, and on-ground events which creates direct connections between players and the game community.

ㅤd) ㅤBusiness growth: MLBB has been running the MLBB Professional League in Indonesia for 8 years as a franchise system, whereby current professional players nurture the next generation of pro players and eventually form their own leagues. This way, teams can compete for eSport titles and have stakes in building a community that advances the local eSports ecosystem. Eventually, these professional players can represent their countries in international tournaments such as SEA Games or International eSports World Championships, and over time, the games can transcend to represent aspirational dreams of their players too.

“The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang community has benefited greatly from the presence of esports, which plays a crucial role in its development. As esports continues to evolve, it provides players with the motivation to pursue their dreams of not just becoming professional players but also becoming content creators specializing in gameplay and analysis. It is proven that aspirations are within reach.”

– MOONTON Games

Moderating user generated content within the community

The gaming developers we interviewed unanimously agreed that moderating user content within the community is critical for nurturing a healthy community. Developers need to define clear rules, educate players on the same, and then implement them uniformly. Developers can also deploy automated moderation tools to moderate user generated content with the community. These tools can include the following capabilities:

• Review potentially inappropriate comments or live chat before publishing
• Create a blocked words list for swiftly flagging inappropriate comments and content
• Hide comments from flagged commenters

Evaluating impact of community building

There are a variety of ways that developers are currently evaluating the impact of their community building activities. Direct attribution to in-game revenue can be a challenge but measuring the number of followers or members, the number of views, and engagement on content (including number of comments) are metrics that game developers are using for evaluating impact.

Top developers go one level deeper in their analysis of views and content — they measure the amount of user generated content and also the number of organic views for any content. Other measurable metrics are CTRs and the length of content being viewed.

Apart from quantitative metrics, it is also important to analyze qualitative feedback at periodic intervals. This can be utilized for new feature ideas as well as for identifying in-game issues and bugs.

Conclusion

Nurturing a vibrant gaming community in regions like INSEA requires a multifaceted approach that encompasses content, creators, localization, and eSports engagement. By understanding the diverse cultures and preferences of the player base and leveraging these insights to tailor content and engagement strategies, developers can foster loyalty and engagement.

Developers should start at a pace and scale that’s comfortable, as community-building takes time. Ultimately, a well-cultivated gaming community not only ensures long-term player loyalty but also represents a collaborative and thriving ecosystem where players’ voices are heard, fostering a sense of belonging and shared enthusiasm for the game.

Importance of building your game community in Southeast Asia and India was originally published in Google Play Apps & Games on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Posted by Timothy Jordan, Director, Developer Relations & Open Source

I/O is just a few days away and we couldn’t be more excited to share the latest updates across Google’s developer products, solutions, and technologies. From keynotes to technical sessions and hands-on workshops, these announcements aim to help you build smarter and ship faster.

Here are some helpful tips to maximize your experience online.

Start building your personal I/O agenda

Starting now, you can save the Google and developer keynotes to your calendar and explore the program to preview content. Here are just a few noteworthy examples of what you’ll find this year:

What’s new in Android

• Get the latest news in Android development: Android 14, form factors, Jetpack, Compose, tooling and performance.

What’s new in Web

• Explore new features and APIs that became stable across browsers on the Web Platform this year.

What’s new in Generative AI

• Discover a new suite of tools that make it easy for developers to build on top of Google’s best Large Language Models.

What’s new in Google Cloud

• Learn how Google Cloud and generative AI will help you develop faster and more efficiently.

For the best experience, create or connect a developer profile and start saving content to My I/O to build your personal agenda. With over 200 sessions and other learning material, there’s a lot to cover, so we hope this will help you get organized.

This year we’ve introduced development focus filters to help you navigate content faster across mobile, web, AI, and cloud technologies. You can also peruse content by topic, type, or experience level so you can find what you’re interested in, faster.

Connect with the community

After the keynotes, you can talk to Google experts and other developers online in I/O Adventure chat. Here you can ask questions about new releases and learn best practices from the global developer community.

If you’re craving community now, visit the Community page to meet people with similar interests in your area or find a watch party to attend.

We hope these updates are useful, and we can’t wait to connect online in May!

Get ready for Google I/O was originally published in Google Play Apps & Games on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Posted by Michelle Tan, Strategic Partner Development Manager

Did you know the majority of the top-grossing Google Play games in the US come from overseas developers?

As one of the world’s biggest games markets, the US represents a significant opportunity for your mobile games business to grow its player base. In this post, we look at 4 tips that could help your mobile game enter and grow in the US market.

Tip 1: Localize for a diverse audience

Among its population of 336m¹, the US boasts considerable ethnic and cultural diversity that should not be overlooked, including US Hispanics and the Chinese community.

If you have a game localized in Simplified Chinese or Latin American Spanish, you potentially have a significant ready audience in the US. And if you don’t, it’s worth localizing for one or both of these languages, both in-game and on Google Play surfaces, such as your store listing, icons, and screenshots.

You can find more about optimizing games for US Hispanics in our Captivate and delight US Hispanic mobile gamers post and more details on publishing in Chinese languages in our Demystifying Chinese languages in the app world post.

Tip 2: Lean into the reasons gamers play

In 2022, Google and VGM conducted a survey to explore the behavior and motivation of mobile game players. Among mobile players in North America, the survey found that the most common reasons to start playing were boredom, a need to relax, or because they had spare time.

Consider these reasons when promoting your game to US gamers. For example, weave mention of these play triggers into your game’s store listing description. You can create up to 50 custom listings and target them to users by country, pre-registration status, or visits from specific URLs. Then, consider carrying this emphasis into your social media and other channels where you communicate with US players.

Tip 3: Optimize for low-end devices

You might think that high-end phones dominate the US mobile phone market. However, there are low-end devices active in the US as well. Therefore, optimizing your game to run well on devices with limited resources can ensure a high-quality experience for all users. To do this:

• Use the core app quality checklist and best practices as a guide.
• Be aware of the total game size.
• Consider providing simpler, lighter versions of game assets by default and offering options to download additional features.

The Reach and Devices section in your Play Console can also help you better decide which specifications to build for, where to launch, and what to test, using insights about your user and issue distribution.

More importantly, games not optimized well for a device’s resources can freeze and crash. And, as with many other markets, North American mobile players are not tolerant of this behavior, with approximately one in three players surveyed abandoning games because they encounter too many bugs and crashes.

Tip 4: Offer frequent challenges, quests, and promotions

Google Play data shows that mobile gamers in the US spend throughout the week, with weekends seeing the most activity. To satisfy the demand this creates, consider running frequent Liveops events such as challenges, quests, and promotions.

Where you promote in-game purchases as part of these activities, it’s worth noting that the research by Google and VGM found that North American mobile players are more inclined to purchase in-game currency than other in-game benefits.

The same research also found that progression is a key motivation for spending, with 31% of North American respondents indicating they purchase to progress more quickly and 28% to reach a personal goal.

So, If you are planning to enter the US market or looking for more players for your mobile game in the US, consider:

• Localizing for Chinese or US Hispanic communities.
• Speaking to the most common reasons gamers play.
• Optimizing your game to run well on low- and high-end devices.
• Offering frequent challenges, quests, and promotions.

To learn more about North American mobile game players’ behavior and motivation, check out the Mobile Insights Report on games.withgoogle.com.

¹ https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/

4 Tips for Finding and Engaging Mobile Players in the US was originally published in Google Play Apps & Games on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Captivate and delight US Hispanic mobile gamers

5 principles to engage players in an overlooked market

Here at Google Play, we recognize the importance of US Hispanics, a demographic often overlooked when creating games for Latin Americans. We also know there is a lack of developer-focused research about what motivates US Hispanic gamers, particularly compared to other Latin American gamers. To address this, we collaborated with market research and advisory company Savanta to survey Latin American and US Hispanic gamers. The goal was to understand key gaming behaviors and experiences, engagement drivers, and spending behavior in these markets.

Over 10 thousand people responded, including US Hispanic gamers and gamers from Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Peru. The gamers who responded were aged 18 to 45; 56% were male and 44% female. We also found that when it came to US Hispanic gamers:

• 62% identify as Mexican, Mexican American, or Chicano.
• 51% speak Spanish. 14% speak mostly or only Spanish, and 37% speak Spanish and English equally.
• 42% consume some media in Spanish. 33% consume media in Spanish and English equally, and 9% in mostly or only Spanish.
• 87% were born in the US.

From these gamers, we identified 5 principles that could help mobile game studios captivate and delight US Hispanic mobile gamers. This article explores these 5 principles, showing how US Hispanic gamers differ from or are similar to Latin American gamers. And, for studios that haven’t yet considered how to engage with Latin American gamers, these insights are a great introduction to these gamers generally.

Principles for engaging with US Hispanic gamers

The 5 principles that could help increase US Hispanic gamers’ enjoyment of games, keep them engaged, reduce uninstalls, and interest them in spending are:

• Ensure your game performs exceptionally well
• Use motivations to keep players engaged
• Consider the broader context of gaming sessions
• Ensure a presence across the discovery journey
• Understand local purchase drivers and barriers

Principle 1: Ensure your game performs exceptionally well

3 key things stood out in terms of game performance: game size, uninstall behavior, and model-specific optimizations.

Game size

Game size is the 2nd highest download driver among US Hispanic and Latin American players and higher for 35- to 45-year-olds.

Uninstall behavior

When it comes to uninstalls, poor game quality and crashes are significant drivers of uninstalls for US Hispanic and Latin American gamers.

Model-specific optimizations

Eighty percent of US Hispanic players would download a game if one or more game features are optimized for the hardware characteristics of their smartphone model. Here are the top 5 in-demand features for optimizing game performance:

1. Ability to hide skins or cosmetic items unless specific visual packs are downloaded.
2. Ability to fully unlock other game modes using additional, optional downloads.
3. Ability to download maps one by one or as you progress.
4. Lighter textures.
5. Lower quality sounds.

Best practices

To address the needs of US Hispanic players, consider:

• Building for quality.
• Minimizing your game size, even when targeting higher spec phones.
• Optimizing game performance by offering options, such as downloads for additional features, that help improve game quality.

Principle 2: Use player motivations to keep them engaged

Tapping into people’s intrinsic motivations for gaming is a great way to find success. We identified four key motivations: the motivation to play, motivation to remain engaged, social motivations, and cultural relevance.

Motivation to play

Latin American and US Hispanic gamers are highly motivated to play games to relax, unwind, and relieve boredom. However, US Hispanic gamers are more interested in moments of indulgence and mastery — “me time” — whereas Latin American players have more social motivations.

Motivation to remain engaged

There are strong similarities between the two markets. However, US Hispanic gamers put more emphasis on how easy a game is to pick up and learn compared to Latin American gamers, who are more interested in the game’s story and narrative. Interestingly, only Latin American gamers mentioned the ability to play with others in-game as a top 5 factor that drives engagement.

The top reasons for remaining engaged were:

Social motivations

While social reasons aren’t necessarily what drive US Hispanic gamers, there is a significance to social features in their gameplay. When we explored how players engage with and appreciate in-game social features we found that Latin American gamers focus much more on the collective aspects of social gaming whereas US Hispanic gamers focus more on competitive elements:

Cultural relevance

US Hispanic gamers in particular show an appreciation of meaningful localization. Half of the players indicated that they look for storylines and events or characters that are relevant to their culture. And when asked to rank the factors that affected their choice of games to play, the top 3 were:

1. It has characters or skins that are relevant to my culture, such as local celebrities and sports players.
2. It incorporates events relevant to my culture, for example, Mexican Day of the Dead.
3. It has content relevant to my culture, such as local maps.

And these top 3 remained consistent for Latin American and US Hispanic gamers, reflecting the fact that they have a distinct culture that they appreciate being incorporated into mobile titles.

Best practices

To address the needs of US Hispanic players, consider:

• Marketing games as “easy to learn” and outlets of relaxation.
• Infusing meaningful Hispanic storylines, characters, and events into mobile games.
• Making it easy for players to socialize with friends with multiplayer features and game invitations.

Principle 3: Consider the broader context of gaming sessions

This principle is about when, where, and why the audience starts playing.

When people play

Both Latin American and US Hispanics gamers see just before bed, afternoon breaks, and the weekend as the top 3 play occasions.

Where people play

There are many similarities in where players played, with 51% of Latin American and US Hispanic gamers playing at home. This finding reflects that both audiences are highly motivated to play games to relax, unwind, and relieve boredom. However, filling time away from home is still a key occasion.

Interestingly, when they’re away from home, many players opt for offline games: 64% of US Hispanic players considered being able to play a game offline important compared to 58% of Latin American players.

Why people play

Latin American and US Hispanic gamers are highly social players. Challenges, posts, and invites draw them in. However, US Hispanic gamers are much more likely to respond to notifications. The top gaming triggers broke down like this:

Best practices

To address the needs of US Hispanic players, consider:

• Sending notifications in the afternoons, before bed, and at the weekend to nudge play.
• Providing for offline play during sessions, where possible.
• Incorporating social components into gameplay, make it easy for players to send and accept game challenges and share their progress on social media.

Principle 4: Have a presence across the discovery journey

Players rely on a variety of sources to discover games, presenting both challenges and opportunities.

Where players discover games

The most used ways to discover games across the two markets were:

For US Hispanic players, Play Store and video platforms are the key discovery channels, while for Latin American gamers recommendations from friends and family and ads are most important.

YouTube is used twice as much as other platforms, and the high percentage of gamers using it demonstrates how important it is to have a presence there.

Additionally, nearly half of US Hispanic players watch more than 3 hours of smartphone gaming content online compared to just 23% of Latin American players.

Use of YouTube for gaming

YouTube plays a strong role in both discovering and making the most out of games. Watching game reviews accounts for over a third of Hispanic gaming YouTube use, followed closely by watching trailers of new games.

The impact of influencers

Influencers play a key role in download decisions, with 1 in 4 people among medium and heavyspending US Hispanic gamers having downloaded their most recent game as the result of an influencer recommendation.

Also, as 42% of US Hispanic gamers consume some media in Spanish, it’s likely that these include Spanish-speaking influencers.

Best practices

To address the needs of US Hispanic players, consider:

• Making efforts to be discovered across multiple channels.
• Ensuring you have a strong YouTube presence.
• Using Spanish-speaking influencers for more than just promotion.

Principle 5: Understand local purchase drivers and barriers

The US Hispanic market is significant. According to the Latino Donor Collaborative, based on estimates of GDP, the US Latino market was the equivalent of the world’s 5th largest economy and has grown faster than non-Latino markets in the US.

The survey looked at a number of factors related to spending: who spends, how much they spend, what they buy, and spending behavior.

Spender profiles

Spender profile is fairly uniform among Latin American and US Hispanic gamers, with spenders:

• More likely to be male (62%).
• 3 in 4 or more are aged 25 or older.
• More affluent and have higher average household incomes.
• More likely to find or discover mobile games from YouTubers or gaming influencers and video platforms.
• Driven by social, they will spend to make playing with friends a better experience or to compete with others.

Spending

US Hispanic gamers are open to spending on games, though they tend to spend relatively small amounts. 73% of US Hispanic players have spent on IAPs in the past 3 months compared to 58% of Latin American players.

What they buy

When spending on games players opt for more tangible IAPs, such as those unlocking new characters or collectible items, as they are a lasting and visible reminder of investment.

Spend drivers

Again there is considerable similarity between the two markets when it comes to spending drivers. However, Latin American players continue to focus on the social aspects of gaming compared to the US Hispanic gamers who are more focused on progression. The top spending drivers for the two audiences are:

Perceptions of value

Cost and value perception are key considerations for US Hispanic gamers:

• 37% didn’t purchase a game because the IAP price was too high (vs 31% of Latin American players).
• 28% didn’t purchase a game because they were worried it wouldn’t be good value (vs 24% of Latin American players).
• 26% didn’t purchase a game because the overall game was too expensive (vs 25% of Latin American players).

Pricing

About 65% of US Hispanic gamers said that price points between $3 and $5 are “about right” for IAPs.

Motivating non-spenders

Sixty percent of non-spenders said they could be influenced to buy in-app purchases in the future, but need to feel like they’re gaining something valuable from their purchase. Overall, the top 5 reasons for spending were:

1. If the IAP was on offer or discounted.
2. If the purchase felt like good value, for example, there’s a bonus included.
3. If they could progress in the game.
4. If they could personalize their experience.
5. If they could play the game for longer.

Again, US Hispanic players want to get the most out of their gaming experience, and if that can be enhanced with an in-app purchase, they’re willing to spend.

Best practices

To address the needs of US Hispanic players, consider:

• Emphasizing the value delivered with durable IAPs.
• Ensuring all IAPs make players feel their purchases are great value.
• Set entry price points to meet market expectations.

Reaching US Hispanic gamers

With these 5 principles for success in mind, let’s consider what you should do to reach US Hispanic gamers.

Build US Hispanic players into your Latin America strategy

The experience of successful game businesses suggests this is a three-step process:

1. Test and learn — Launch beta versions of a localized game in specific Latin America markets, with:

• Beta testing that targets specific markets.
• Use of Android Vitals to understand performance on lower-end devices.

2. Optimize — Expand across Latin America, optimizing based on user feedback, with:

• A/B testing and experiments.
• Analysis of ratings and reviews by device type and country.

3. Expand — When you have a high-quality localized game, expand to target Hispanic users in the US by:

• Setting up custom Play store listings in the US for users that have the device set for Spanish.
• Running UA campaigns targeting specific groups.

Tips for reaching Hispanic and Latino people in the US

• Use the right identifying language — Not all Latinos identify as “Hispanic” and not all Hispanic people identify as “Latino,” reflect nuance across Latino experiences.
• Represent the diversity of ethnicities among Latinos — Be mindful of ethnic origin, racial identification, and geographic specificity.
• Show year-round commitment — Showing meaningful representation in creative and product demonstrates a commitment to Latino inclusion.
• Reflect nuance across Latino experiences — Portray nuanced representations of appearances, and socioeconomic and immigrant experiences.
• Avoid appropriating Latino culture — Champion the people behind customs and traditions.
• Ensure localization is handled by native speakers — Spanish speakers hail from a variety of heritages with different vocabulary, dialects, or accents.

Succeed with US Hispanic gamers was originally published in Google Play Apps & Games on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This article is part of a collaboration between Newzoo and Google. All market sizing estimates and forecasts in this article are based on Newzoo’s January 2022 update of the Global Games Market Report.

Western Europe is the third-largest mobile gaming market by revenues (after Eastern Asia and North America), generating over $7 billion from consumer spending in 2021. This article shares some of our Global Games Market Report data on this exciting market and zooms in on our Consumer Insights data on demographics, spending, favorite genres, and game content viewing behavior among mobile gamers in Western Europe.

Mobile Gamer Numbers in Western Europe

By the end of last year, Western Europe was home to almost 209 million mobile gamers. Based on the January 2022 update of our Global Games Market Report, player growth in Western Europe is forecast to outstrip other mature mobile games markets. Our forecast suggests that between 2019 and 2024, the number of mobile gamers in Western Europe will grow with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of +2.3% compared to +0.8% in North America and +2.2% in Eastern Asia.

The global growth rate is higher (+4.4% 2019–2024 CAGR), thanks to high growth in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, India, and the Middle East & Africa. It’s important to note that Western Europe’s large number of (high) spenders means its revenues are more significant.

Mobile Game Revenues in Western Europe

In Western Europe, mobile games generated $7.2 billion in revenue from consumer spending in 2021 (excluding ad revenues). While revenues still grew between 2020 and 2021, growth was slower than in the previous period.

Mobile’s revenue slowdown from 2020 to 2021 was not unique to Western Europe. Across the board, 2020 was a monumental year for gaming, which attracted many new and returning players due to COVID lockdowns.

Western Europe’s mobile games market is healthy, as is illustrated by Western Europe’s continued growth in mobile revenue and player numbers across 2020 and 2021, despite the impact on user acquisition on iOS due to Apple’s removal of IDFA in Q2 2021 and COVID-related challenges. Android mobile gaming in Western Europe continued to see stable growth last year for several reasons:

• As the world opened up and players emerged from lockdowns, mobile gaming on pocket-sized devices maintained healthy growth in engagement and spending.
• Revenue growth on Android was more fruitful because of the impact on iOS game developers of Apple’s removal of IDFA. Western Europe is more Android-focused than other mature Western markets, including the U.S., so avoided the adverse knock-on effects of this change. In fact, 55% of Western Europe’s mobile gaming revenue came from Android vs 35% in North America.

More Growth Is on the Horizon for Western Europe’s Mobile Games Market

Western Europe’s mobile games market will grow even more in the long-term, hitting $8.6 billion in 2024. This growth will be driven by:

• Ongoing live services and hybrid monetization innovation (across core and casual genres).
• Console- and PC-first companies bringing their franchises to mobile to bolster their growth and revenue streams. For example, Apex Legends Mobile and Diablo Immortal launched on mobile this year.
• Mobile games getting increasingly complex and immersive, attracting core gamers to the platform and boosting revenues.
• Opportunities to boost average spend per mobile gamer, which is relatively low compared to console games in the region and mobile games in other mature markets.
• A new generation of mobile-first gamers (for instance, ROBLOX reported 54% of its revenue coming from mobile in 2021).

That’s our high-level overview of Western Europe’s games market, but who are the players that power it? What are their demographics? And how much do they spend? Let’s take a look.

Male Mobile Gamers in Western Europe Are More Likely to Spend Big

To explore Western Europe’s player behavior and motivations, we surveyed more than 10,000 mobile gamers in France, the U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Finland. We categorize Western Europe’s mobile gamers into four spending groups:

• Big spenders, who spend over $25 a month across mobile games.
• Average spenders, who spend between $5.01 and $25 a month.
• Minor spenders, who spend $5 a month or less.
• Non-spenders, who spend nothing on mobile games.

The bigger the spending group, the more likely it is to be male-dominated. As you can see below, 62% of big spenders are male compared to 60% of average spenders, 58% of minor spenders, and 47% of non-spenders:

The more players spend, the younger they are. Big and average spenders have an average age of 31.4 compared to 33.3 for minor spenders and 36.5 for non-spenders.

Unsurprisingly, big spenders tend to be the players engage most with the game (and therefore spend more time playing). We cross-analyzed their playing behavior with spending habits, and the results speak for themselves:

• Nearly 70% of big spenders play more than three days a week compared to less than 50% for the other groups.
• 53% of big spenders play longer than 6 hours a week on mobile, compared to only 20% for the others.

Naturally, some genres take up more of players’ time than others.

Complex, Competitive, and Core: Big Spenders on Mobile Tend to Play More Intricate Genres

We asked mobile gamers in Western Europe which genres they played most in the past six months. The biggest spenders tended to list more core and complex genres such as shooter, adventure, fighting, battle royale, and role-playing games. Casual genres, such as puzzle, are more prominent among the non-big spending groups — those who spend no more than $25 per month on mobile games.

Naturally, these genre preferences are visible in the types of content mobile gamers buy.

Big spenders are more likely to spend on every category. Relative to other groups, spending on cosmetics and skins is more common among big spenders. This is, at least in part, because the casual genres enjoyed by average and minor spenders have fewer options to buy cosmetics and skins. Rather, in-game microtransactions in casual games are mainly for extra lives, moves, and power-ups.

As you can see above, big spenders and average spenders also show a stronger preference for in-game currencies, new content, power-ups, content passes, and time savers.

Content passes, such as season passes and battle passes in particular, are becoming increasingly popular among mobile games, giving publishers a predictable recurring revenue stream. Such monetization is now a staple of Western Europe’s most popular core mobile games, including Call of Duty Mobile and Clash of Clans.

YouTube Is by Far the Most Popular Streaming Platforms Among Mobile Gamers

Western Europe’s esports scene generated $209.6 million in revenues in 2021, powered by an esports audience of 47.0 million. The live-streaming audience — those who have watched live-streamed gaming content at least once in the last six months — reached 91.3 million in 2021.

Engagement with game streaming content is high among mobile gamers in Western Europe. Based on our consumer insights, 45% of mobile gamers watch live-streamed game content. The same share watches pre-recorded game content.

YouTube is by far the most popular game streaming platform among mobile gamers in Western Europe. Among those who watch game content, over 90% report that they watch more than once a week on YouTube. Meanwhile, rivals — including Twitch, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok — each get 50–60% of viewers watching more than once a week.

If you’d like to learn more about the mobile games market in Western Europe, reach out to us here or at questions@newzoo.com.

Data and Insights Into Mobile Gamers in Western Europe was originally published in Google Play Apps & Games on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The games market continues to grow rapidly, with mobile gaming being the fastest growing market sector. According to the 2021 Global Gaming Market research by NewZoo, mobile gaming now accounts for almost half of all gaming revenue.

Improvements in technology are a key reason why mobile gaming is growing so fast. Mobile devices are getting more powerful, with bigger and better screens and batteries. Also, wireless network coverage is rapidly expanding, and today it’s much easier to download content on the go from almost anywhere. These improvements mean that the latest mobile games are more versatile, engaging, and fun. Take Genshin Impact; this is a perfect example of a game that wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago, due to lower performance and technical limitations (CPU, RAM etc) of mobile devices.

With fewer limitations and new business scaling opportunities, more game studios are bringing their franchises previously successful on PC and console, to mobile. They do this to help existing players stay engaged with their favorite game on the go and to reach new audiences on mobile. Examples of top PC and console IPs that have been released on mobile include Call of Duty: Mobile (by Activision Publishing), GTA series (by Rockstar Games), Lineage 2: Revolution (by Netmarble), and League of Legends: Wild Rift (by Riot Games).

Today, PC and console developers going mobile have the opportunity to deliver either a fully ported title or an adaptation for mobile devices. If you have PC or console IP, this article is designed to help you by sharing opportunities and best practices for taking a game mobile.

The business value of expanding to mobile

There are two main reasons for taking a game mobile: access to new audiences and new revenue opportunities.

New audiences

Mobile gamers now outnumber console gamers by over 3-to-1. According to Statista, more than 2.8 billion people play games on their mobile devices, with over 1 billion of them doing so daily. The mobile device is the only accessible gaming platform for a sizable portion of these players, so there is no other way to reach this potential audience.

New revenue opportunities

According to the latest Newzoo research, mobile games generated revenues of $90.7 billion in 2021, growing +4.4% year on year, and accounts for 52% of the global games market revenue.

There are several reasons why the mobile market is expected to grow more than both PC and console gaming:

• Mobile games have the lowest entry barrier: according to Newzoo, more than 40% of the global population owns a smartphone, and many mobile games are free to play.
• The player motivations behind mobile games offer alternatives to PC and console gaming. Many gamers turn to mobile games as a way to unwind, connect with others, or pass time when they’re on the go.
• According to AppAnnie’s 2021 Mobile Gaming Tear Down report, the mobile market maintains strong growth dynamics:

– Weekly game downloads: >1B, +25% vs 2019

– Weekly app stores spend: >$1.7B, +40% vs 2019

– Week hours spent: >5B hrs, +35% vs 2019

– Monthly games spend per device: $9, +45% 2Y Growth

Planning to go mobile

When taking your IP to mobile, you need to start by considering your strategy and the best way to approach the platform.

• Full port of your PC or console game with as few changes as possible. Examples of this approach include Titan Quest Legendary Edition (by HandyGames), Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (by Rockstar Games), and Company of Heroes (by Feral Interactive).
• IP adaptation, building a new game specifically for mobile devices based on your existing IP. Examples of this approach include Call of Duty: Mobile (by Activision Publishing), PUBG Mobile (by Level Infinite), and Lineage 2: Revolution (by Netmarble).

When looking to see if you can port your game to mobile, you’ll want to consider your game’s technical performance, looking at the CPU, GPU, RAM, and other capabilities of mobile devices. It’s also about the experience players will have with the game on a mobile device screen, where they interact through touch. The player experience is also about any potential differences between the PC, console, and mobile games. For example, it may prove easier to play the game on a touchscreen, giving mobile players an advantage over PC and console players. Determining the right way to optimize your game for mobile may involve some experimentation to assess the technical and player experience aspects.

Insourcing or outsourcing: If your game has been developed on a game engine such as Unity or Unreal, you might be able to port or develop a new game using existing resources relatively easily. If the game uses a proprietary engine, porting may be more challenging. An option worth considering is using a third-party porting studio, professionals who can port your title and provide you with the source materials (assets and code) to continue development.

Developing your game for mobile

When it comes to developing for mobile, there is a range of considerations that you may not have encountered in PC or console development. This section looks at the key things you should plan for and the tools available to help.

Performance and scalability

To ensure the best possible user experience reaching audiences across a wide range of devices, there are several tools available to Android developers.

Secure your launch while thinking of coverage and quality

• Select your device target list according to the game’s performance and scalability requirements. It is always better to release a quality game to a limited number of devices, then optimize the game to support a wider range of devices.
• In case of time limitations to release your title, consider targeting more powerful devices first, then roll out your title to a wider list of devices later, when you are confident in the game’s technical and overall performance.
• Device catalog in Google Play Console enables you to view the capabilities and specifications of Android devices and use that information to ensure your game is only released on devices with the features to run it well.

Prioritize performance to deliver a great user experience

• Android Performance Tuner (APT) helps you identify performance issues in your game and highlights opportunities to improve your fidelity. Impact metrics help you prioritize, and issues are categorized to help you take action. Information at device model and device spec level enables you to find the most effective way to proceed. Learn how Spokko, developer of The Witcher: Monster Slayer, increases reach with Android Performance Tuner.
• The Android Profiler tools provide real-time data to help you understand how your game uses CPU, memory, network, and battery resources.
• Vulkan graphics API, from the Khronos Group, is a low-overhead, cross-platform API for high-performance 3D graphics. It provides tools for creating high-quality, real-time graphics in games.
• Android vitals is an initiative by Google to improve the stability and performance of Android devices. Google Play Console aggregates data, such as app stability, startup time, battery usage, render time, and permission denials, displaying them in the Android vitals dashboard. Pay attention to the category benchmarks for your game, as Android vitals are also critical to maintain optimal visibility in the Play store.

Game size

The smaller your game’s initial distribution file is, the better. For larger games, it is better to split the download into several blocks: for example, to download a game launcher first, followed by additional assets while the user is interacting with the game. Another way to split downloads is to omit levels and maps from the initial download, and instead deliver these parts of the game when they are needed or at the player’s request.

To help you reduce the size of the original distribution file and manage additional downloads, there are several tools you can use:

• Play Asset Delivery (PAD) enables games larger than 150MB to publish an artifact to Play containing all the resources the game needs. PAD offers flexible delivery modes, auto-updates, compression, and delta patching. Using PAD, all asset packs are hosted and served on Google Play, removing the need to use a content delivery network (CDN) to get your game resources to players. For example, CD Projekt RED reduced their update size by 90% and increased update rates by 10%.
• Android App Bundle is Android’s official publishing format. It offers an efficient way to build and release your game and helps you easily deliver a great experience in a smaller app size. The benefits include support for modular app development and customizable feature delivery.
• Play Feature Delivery uses advanced capabilities of app bundles, enabling features of your game to be delivered conditionally or downloaded on demand. To do that, you need to create modules for each feature, separate from your base app.

Learn more about managing game download size in the Android developer guide on reducing game size.

UI adaptation

UI adaptation is an important issue. You could have a great PC or console game, but will it be similarly impressive on a smaller screen? Will it be possible to play the game on a mobile device? To optimize your game for mobile, consider the user interface of the device and how to adapt in-game controls so the user can play the game on a smaller screen using touch controls (in most cases). Here are some examples of areas to focus:

• For example, an in-game armor shop with many tabs and details for each item works well on larger screens. However, such an interface could be too cluttered with unreadable small text and buttons on a smartphone.
• Any interface should be easily accessible, easy to read, and adapted to the touch screen controls. If you haven’t built a mobile interface before, one way to learn about what works is to check out the genre leaders — the top 3 or 5 mobile games in the same genre as your game.
• When thinking about the UI, you should also remember the controls. While it is possible to use a dedicated gaming controller to play a game on mobile, very few users will play the game this way: most players use their device’s touchscreen. This means you must adopt the touchscreen navigation and make sure the game is easy and fun to play with that control method.

IP protection

To keep your loyal community healthy and happy, make sure to protect your title from modifications. Google provides solutions to help avoid possible abuse, while securing your business and taking care of your users.

Some tools that could help you to protect your IP on Google Play include:

• App integrity automatically adds runtime integrity checks with each release to reduce unauthorized modification or redistribution for games published with the Android App Bundle. This tool protects games that are not intrinsically server-based from tampering, and are especially suitable for premium games, single-player games, and games with offline components.
• App licensing determines whether a binary can be trusted by verifying that the APK came from the Play Store. For example, prevent piracy or reduce beta leakage when soft-launching in several countries.
• SafetyNet Attestation API is an anti-abuse API that assesses the Android device your app is running on. The API should be used as a part of your abuse detection system to help determine whether your servers are interacting with a genuine copy of your app running on an unmodified Android device.

Monetizing your game

Monetization models available on mobile are similar PC and console platforms. While the freemium model is most prominent, changing your monetization approach may require gameplay-related improvements and fine-tuning. The monetization options available to you on the Play Store include:

Premium, where players pay once and get the full product with no limitations. For premium titles on Google Play, consider Google Play Pass. This is a subscription service that offers hundreds of apps and games with no ads or in-app purchases. Play Pass provides a high-quality, curated collection of titles, with new content added regularly.

Freemium, where players download the game with no upfront costs for access to a portion of the gameplay. The game is then monetized with:

• In-app purchases (IAP), where the player makes one-off payments for either durable or consumable items in the game. This includes skins or weapons, or similar consumable items such as in-game currency, extra lives, or battle passes.
• Subscriptions, where a player makes a regular payment for access to the game or features within the game. Features can be durable, for the life of the subscription, or consumable, which could be depleted before the subscription fee renews, such as in-game currency or battle passes.
• Ads, which can be displayed to players during gameplay or between game sessions. A recent innovation in ads is the rewarded ads, where players commit to watching a promotional video in return for a reward such as in-game currency or extra play attempts.

Hybrid, where a combination of ads, subscriptions, and IAPs are used in either premium or freemium games. For example, using IAP and ads in a freemium game or subscriptions in a premium game are very common.

The challenge with selecting the best monetization approach for your game is that mobile reaches a very diverse audience, from hard-core gamers willing to buy a premium game or pay a monthly subscription, to more casual players who might purchase the occasional IAP or happily watch ads. As you determine if hybrid is the right model for your game, make sure to balance the game economy to ensure that all players get fair access and equal opportunity to progress. It could also be hard to adopt a freemium approach for a full porting of an originally premium title, and for this reason, many studios create an IP adaptation that is built around the freemium model from the start.

To help you better understand and pick the most suitable monetization model for your game, check out the monetization guide and Play Academy course.

Building your player base

A great way to kick-start your game on the Play Store is to use the power of your existing community and fanbase. Offer them the chance to experience their favorite game in a new way and on a new platform. Consider cross-promoting your mobile game through your existing marketing channels, such as social networks, forums, and even in-game. PR and influencer campaigns are other ways to reach your existing fanbase.

There are several tools available to grow your mobile audience:

• App Campaigns make it easy to promote your game across Google properties, including Search, Google Play, YouTube, and the Google Display Network.
• Pre-registration on Google Play helps drive awareness and build anticipation for your game before launch. Capturing consumer interest early can accelerate launch performance. Learn how League of Legends: Wild Rift drove nearly 40M pre-registrations on Google Play.
• Instant games and “Try now” buttons give players a sneak peek of what the game offers before installing or buying. This is a great approach if you have a large game that lends itself to showcasing a small level or part of the gameplay. Learn how Panzerdog doubled retention and drove 3x conversion through testing and Google Play Instant.

Other considerations

Ratings & Reviews are incredibly important for all games. They are a reflection of the game’s quality. The better the ratings, the better the players will accept the game. Make sure you are familiar with the Google Play tools to analyze your ratings and reviews available in Play Console such as the Reply to Reviews API and benchmarks.

LiveOps is the strategic distribution of content and time-limited interactions with players such as in-game events and sales. These events are designed to bolster engagement and monetization, while helping reduce player churn and improving your lifetime value (LTV). To build a LiveOps strategy, look into player motivations to understand how to satisfy different user segments throughout their lifecycle (early, mid, and late game). If you’re invested in LiveOps, the new LiveOps Cards Events section in Google Play is another great way to help users discover your game and to re-engage players. Learn more about the LiveOps Cards Early Access Program here.

Summary

The mobile games market provides a great opportunity to expand the reach of existing PC and console games. Through thoughtful planning and adaptation, many great IPs have already made the leap to mobile with great success. Get more best practices and resources to help bring your existing games to mobile, including high-fidelity titles, to expand your audience reach, revenue opportunities, and new ways of creating long relationships with the gamers.

Best practices for bringing PC and console games to mobile was originally published in Google Play Apps & Games on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Special thanks to contributors Michael Dietz and Maria Zoe Lopez-Latorre, who provided invaluable input for this article.

Introduction

We have less than a decade to cut global emissions to have a chance of limiting global heating to 1.5°c. As a company decision-maker, this gives you a huge opportunity to make your strategic choices matter. At first glance, you may feel that turning attention to your company’s digital footprint is unnecessary. After all, digital is immaterial, right? Yet, every smartphone tap or scroll relies on an energy-consuming physical infrastructure.

This post explains why becoming a sustainability-aware app or game is a strategic imperative. It also shares actionable examples of how industry leaders and Google are helping drive decarbonization at scale through seemingly small efficiency gains.

A strategic imperative

As sustainability-aware apps strive to use fewer resources, they are faster, more efficient, and more performant, which can also lower costs. In fact, 26% of businesses are motivated to become sustainable to improve their operational efficiency.

As a product designer, developer, or CMO of a digital product, you may be questioning what sustainability has to do with the digital realm. Indeed, carbon emissions from digital products are much lower than is often reported. Also, the IEA states that “data centers and data transmission networks” are one of the few industry sectors on track to meet emissions targets laid out in the Paris Agreement. However, the digital sector is responsible for 4% of greenhouse gas emissions and global electricity consumption, which are predicted to climb to ~9% by 2030.

There’s a good chance your investors are required to report on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) components. Leading VC firms are integrating sustainability clauses into term sheets and shareholder agreements to nudge startups towards more climate-conscious practices. In fact, startups such as Delivery Hero are committing to adopt a sustainability mindset. If adopted, the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive will see large companies operating in the EU required to disclose their emissions.

Finally, business leaders are under increasing scrutiny from multiple sources: consumers, legislators, and employees. 73% of American voters say corporations should do more to address climate change, and around 80% of global consumers expect brands to be transparent about their environmental impact. Therefore, it is time to identify steps your team can take to accelerate your sustainability strategy.

Carbon-aware engineering culture and backend optimization

There are many ways to make your digital product more sustainable. A starting point is the backend. For the development and deployment of backend services, Google provides an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering known as Google Cloud Platform (GCP), which includes the well-known app backend environment Firebase.

Since 2007, Google has been carbon neutral, Also, since 2017 Google has matched 100% of its electricity consumption with renewable energy purchases. An even more exciting and ambitious goal is to operate all data centers and campuses worldwide with carbon-free energy by 2030. Until then, Google provides tools and best practices on how to optimize a workload on GCP for sustainability:

• Move your backend to a Google Cloud region where the CFE% is high. For example, the data center in Hamina, Finland, is one of the most efficient Google DCs in Europe. With the Cloud Region Picker, you can select the most suitable region for your needs. For Firebase there is a subset of regions that are available for you.
• Cleanup and eliminate all unused resources, such as old virtual machines that exist just because they contain some data. Active Assist provides automatic recommendations for these situations.
• Consider scheduling resources. For example, if you have a virtual machine for running integration tests, assign a schedule that starts and stops them to run only 10/5 instead of 24/7.
• Refactor your backend to use a modern microservices architecture. Microservices typically reduce the amount of overhead, scale more elastically (up and down) and cause fewer resources to idle.
• Use serverless resources for your microservices. Most serverless services, such as Cloud Run or Firebase Functions, only consume resources while being used and free resources immediately after a request finishes.
• Consider moving batch jobs to the greenest region in your geo, reduce the network traffic they require between regions, and schedule them to run at times coinciding with lower grid carbon intensity (such as noon on a sunny summer day).
• Have the right foundation for additional optimization strategies. Google Cloud provides the Carbon Footprint Tool that gives insights into the CO2 emissions of all workloads running in your GCP environment. Also, you can learn more about carbon free energy for Google Cloud regions and get more ideas on how to reduce the carbon footprint in the Cloud.

With these practices in mind, you can help green your backend and can become a true sustainability champion.

Isis T. Baulig, co-founder and CTO of Climatiq, a Germany-based startup providing B2B software for carbon tracking, offers three further ways to build a more efficient backend for a mobile app business:

• Choose an efficient language (such as Rust) to reduce CPU and memory use.
• Serve your backend application closer to the mobile app to reduce the amount of information required to travel across the network.
• Deploy applications to edge computing and CDN networks to further reduce data travel on the web.

Sustainability-aware front-end strategies

There isn’t a universal measure to track a mobile app’s carbon footprint, however, some key factors determine the amount of energy required to serve an app to a user. Slower apps require more energy, so optimizing assets not only improves usability but reduces your product’s carbon footprint.

To reduce your app’s energy use:

1. Improve loading times by compressing and optimizing your assets, using caching, and removing redundant images and videos.
2. Remove unnecessary code by shrinking, obfuscating, and optimizing to minimize the amount of data sent over the network.
3. Support Dark Theme. Lighting the pixels on your user’s screen requires a lot of energy. While Dark Theme (available in Android 10 (API level 29) and higher) won’t impact older devices with LCD screens, supporting Dark Theme can help users with OLED-powered screens to reduce power use by ~40%, depending on phone brightness settings.

Embedding sustainability into your value proposition

Climate-conscious features

Some digital services are uniquely placed to embed sustainability into their core product value proposition. For example, retail and travel apps. Google recently shared its goal to help one billion people make more sustainable choices by embedding carbon emissions information into Google Flights and surfacing whether a hotel is Green Key or EarthCheck certified.

The value proposition of Germany-based Graphmasters’s NUNAV Navigation app is to optimize routes and reduce emissions using collaborative routing:

If focusing on consumers fails to inspire key sustainability-aware features, consider how your company can work with partners and suppliers to make a difference. For example, Sweden’s Karma is on a mission to eliminate food waste by making the sustainable choice the most rewarding one. The company has been using Google’s BigQuery ML on its granular sales data to provide businesses with forecasts, collecting real-time data about what’s being wasted at a granular level. With machine learning, Karma can then use that data to start predicting and ultimately preventing food waste from happening in the first place.

If your app’s use case doesn’t lend itself to embedding sustainability call-to-actions, the next section details how you might inspire action through editorial content instead.

Climate-conscious content

You don’t need an app whose main value proposition is sustainability to have a sustainability-aware product. As a member of Leaders for Climate Action, the developers of audio-learning app Blinkist have publicly committed to taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint. In addition to measuring their carbon footprint and applying sustainability principles to their office, they promote climate-conscious content to their many users globally.

Impact beyond your product

Influencing your peers

Aside from taking steps to measure and improve their overall carbon footprint, many companies are extending their impact by publishing best practices to inspire other businesses to do the same.

London-based Space Ape advocates being transparent about your company’s journey towards decarbonization. After defining their company’s carbon footprint by following the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, offsetting their carbon emissions, and looking for more efficient ways to run their cloud services, Head of Technical Operations, Nic Walker, said:

“Our final commitment last year was to share this information and help others embark upon their own journeys. Our hope is that we can help others, and they continue to help others too; then we catalyze the process towards decarbonizing gaming.”

The team did this by running workshops with peers and teamed up with Supercell to share a playbook on how to decarbonize gaming. In 2020, Space Ape were proudly part of the UN-backed Playing for the Planet Alliance, an initiative designed to empower players to learn about climate change through existing games.

Conclusion

Ultimately, embedding digital sustainability principles aligns with your business efficiency goals. From both a voluntary and mandatory perspective, it’s clear that understanding your environmental impact and reporting it is of increasing importance to all companies.

This article has highlighted examples of developers fostering an open, transparent approach to decarbonizing their products. Follow their lead and share, in the comments, what your company is committed to doing now and into the future.

Becoming a Sustainability-Aware App or Game was originally published in Google Play Apps & Games on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Improving reach, retention, and relationships with your users

Google Play’s billing system allows businesses to easily and safely transact with millions of people worldwide using their preferred form of payment. But it’s more than just a payment platform — it enables developers to select from multiple monetization strategies, and helps them grow and retain their user base.

Google Play partnered with MTM, an international research and strategy consultancy, to understand how leading app developers are maximizing the impact of the commerce platform on their business. MTM interviewed 15 leading app business from various categories across business, dating, health & fitness, audio, books, and family entertainment:

This article summarizes findings and explores ways in which these developers make the most out of Google Play’s billing system and its functionalities. The full report dives deeper into the details, with additional developer benefits and case studies to help you discover the range of possibilities offered by this solution.

1. They leverage Play’s tools to tailor and iterate on pricing & promo strategies

Google Play billing offers a variety of tools to support your app regardless of your business model, monetization strategy, product offering or user base. With Google Play billing, you have the flexibility to set and execute the pricing and promotional strategies that you deem appropriate for your business.

PicsArt, an all-in-one creative platform of photo and video editing, appreciate the flexibility that billing provides around setting up prices, packages and SKUs for products and promotions. This enables them to continuously iterate their monetization strategy at speed and provide users with new packages and discounts.

“Google Play’s billing system provides you with the flexibility around setting up prices, packages, SKUs for products and promotions — whatever I need.” Anna Gasparyan, Product Operations Manager, PicsArt

Maple Media develop a broad range of mobile apps, from weather forecasts to podcast streaming — Google Play billing allows them to implement the revenue model that works best for each individual app. In this way, they are able to take a tailored approach for each app and user experience and optimize for success.

2. They utilize acquisition tools to drive conversions and grow their user base

Google Play billing has a vast suite of tools to support developers in user acquisition and Free Trials are one of the most popular choices among developers. Muslim Pro, a comprehensive Islamic lifestyle app, have used Free Trials to convert monthly subscribers into annual subscribers. In addition, they have noted that users have come to expect a free trial, and that the ability to provide one is crucial to new user acquisition.

Another tactic to drive acquisition is setting a lower introductory price. Joyride, a dating app, have significantly increased conversions from sign up to first purchase since implementing Intro Pricing. Furthermore, they see that users acquired through this way have a higher total LTV than those acquired at a standard price point.

Effective acquisition tools become increasingly important as developers enter new markets and want to adjust their pricing according to user purchasing power. With Localized Pricing developers can maximize growth in a given market, while balancing adoption and revenue. It has had a critical impact on Any.do’s ability to acquire users in new countries and grow their user base outside their core markets:

“Localized Pricing is critical for us, it’s had a big impact on our ability to effectively acquire users in different geos.” Omer Perchik, Founder & CEO, Any.do

Any.do, a productivity platform, combine Localized Pricing with Google Ads to improve their CAC and match it with a geo-specific price point that works for both users and their business.

3. They boost retention rates and build long term relationships with their customers

Top developers also leverage Free Trials and Intro Pricing as a retention tool. Before a subscriber cancels, they can choose to offer them a discount on their subscription in the form of a Free Trial or offer a discount through a lower introductory price. But Google Play Billing has retention tools that are specifically designed to help developers reduce rates of voluntary and involuntary churn and build a strong, long-term relationship with their users.

This starts with Grace Period, which enables users to continue accessing subscription benefits for a short time after a renewal payment has failed (e.g. as a result of credit card expiration) while Google Play works with the user to resolve the issue. Implementing Grace Periods has helped Komoot, a route planning app, boost retention rates by giving their customers more time to resolve a payment failure while continuing to get full access to the app. Providing their users with ample time to update their card details before revoking access has allowed Komoot reduce involuntary churn instances and helps create trusted relationships with customers.

After a Grace Period expires, Account Hold kicks in. During this time users lose access to subscription benefits, but Google will automatically restore access once payment failure is resolved.

Finally, there’s Subscription Pause, that allows the user to control how they wish to engage with the app — users can pause their subscription and re-engage at a time that suits them. Ubook, a subscription-based audio streaming service, use this feature to retain valuable users. A user may have budgetary restrictions that prevent them from paying that month or may be on holiday without internet access — allowing users to pause rather than cancel means they can easily restore their subscription.

4. They leverage insights on retention to win back users and improve their subscription offering

Play allows you to better understand what drives user cancellations through User Cancel Surveys. Developers can use this information to further improve their product and, if relevant, amend their pricing strategy. PicsArt uses insights gathered from User Cancel Surveys to better understand the reasons behind subscription cancellations, whereas Any.do use the feedback they gather from departing customers to improve their premium subscription offering and optimize their pricing.

Insights from cancellation surveys have immediate actionability for developers as well, as they can target lapsed users with relevant offers in Winback Campaigns. In addition, developers have the ability to improve Winback capabilities with contextual user messaging and tailored pricing offers. Apalon, a mobile development company creating ‘essential apps’ from wellness to weather, have seen considerable success with reacquiring lapsed customers through Winback Campaigns. They use them to understand a users’ rationale for canceling — if a user appears to be price sensitive, they can offer them a discount with the aim of retaining them.

5. They manage their subscriptions more effectively with RTDN

Real-time Developer Notifications is a powerful tool that enables you to better understand the status of a subscriber and to more effectively manage subscriptions across the user lifecycle.

This feature has significantly improved Mobills’ workflows and enabled them to better manage their subscriptions by providing them with real-time information on every subscription change. The team behind Mobills, an expense tracking and budget planning app, are more in control and better informed of their subscribers’ status.

Other frequently called out benefits of RTDN include the ability to:

• Respond to subscription events instantaneously, when implemented in conjunction with Google Play’s Developer API
• Reduce the number of request on the API, by automatically validating subscriptions and cancellations
• Fight abuse by verifying all purchases server-side before giving users access to content or services

Eventually, RTDN allows you to communicate more effectively with your users and resolve any issues that arise. It has enabled Muslim Pro to reduce involuntary churn by 20% by providing them with real time notifications when a payment fails, allowing them to immediately contact the user and resolve the issue.

“We love RTDN, it’s the most valuable tool. It allows us to probe on renewal cycles, payment failures and to see if anything’s gone wrong with our subscriptions.” Pablo Cantu, Head of Product, Muslim Pro

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Overall, Google Play’s billing system is straightforward to implement and use, both from a technical and a business perspective. You can decide yourself which features are most suited to your business needs and goals. Hopefully this article has been helpful in outlining opportunities to make the most out of this developer solution. For more, see the full report or visit developer.android.com, Google Play business site and the Play Academy.

5 ways in which top app developers make the most of Play Billing was originally published in Google Play Apps & Games on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Learn about mobile game players in the Middle East, Turkey, and Southeast Asia, and how to connect with them during the holy month of Ramadan

Developers from around the world have found that during Ramadan they see an increase in activity from people in the many countries where the holy month is observed. This provides a significant opportunity to engage with players from the Muslim world.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It’s observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and engaging with the community. As the Muslim calendar is lunar, the dates of Ramadan in the Western calendar vary. In 2023, Ramadan starts on March 22 and finishes on April 20. The end of Ramadan is marked by Eid al-Fitr on April 21, 2023, a national holiday in 19 countries.

According to World Population Review, in 2020 some 1.9 billion people were followers of Islam, meaning that approximately 24% of the world’s population observes Ramadan. Most Muslims live in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Indonesia, for example, is the world’s largest Muslim country and home to 13% of all Muslims.

How games are affected

During Ramadan, people abstain from food and drink from dawn to sunset to cleanse the soul and practice self-restraint and control. They also stay at home more and work less, meaning they often have more free time. This behavior results in higher digital activity in many countries, often focusing on games. For example, according to eMarketer, 44% of Indonesians choose online gaming as their preferred digital activity in the first week of Ramadan.

The market is also significant. According to Newzoo in 2021, Islamic Asian & Middle Eastern countries (ID/MY/PK/BD/SA/TR/UAE/EG) generated $4.32 billion in mobile revenue and had about 300 million mobile players.

On Google Play we have seen a 20% YoY growth in people who spend on games in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. When we look at the effect of Ramadan (2022) we see that compared to the 31 days before Ramadan games show a:

• 40% MoM growth in new paying users (NPUs).
• 11% MoM growth in games revenue.

In 2020, we noticed a higher growth, which was most likely driven by Covid lockdowns.

Looking at regional performance, in Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan during Ramadan:

• Installs grew by over 10%
• Spending grew by over 40% in 2021 and over 10% in 2022.
• New Paying Users grew by over 40% in 2022

In Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar during Ramadan:

• Spending grew by 14% in 2021 and around 10% in 2022.

Therefore, looking for ways to engage with players from the Muslim world during Ramadan has the potential to be rewarding.

Ways to engage players

Optimizing your player engagement during Ramadan starts with getting the basics right. Then look for ways to give your players something extra and put promotion in place, so players know what you’re offering.

Get the basics right

Before you can engage with players over Ramadan, you need to ensure that they can find your game and use it to its full extent. So:

• Make sure your store listing, game, and LiveOps are localized. In your game, pay attention to the UI, especially for Arabic, as it is written from right to left.
• Localize your pricing. Many Muslim gamers are in markets that monetize well on Google Play — such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar. However, you also have large potential audiences in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Egypt, where the habit of paying for game content is still developing. To appeal to more people in these markets, consider using Google Play’s Sub Dollar pricing option to offer your players more affordable purchases.

Give players a treat

The best way to engage with players during Ramadan is to offer them something extra during the month. For example:

• Offer gifts that celebrate the month of Ramadan, such as unique skins, boosters, and alike.
• Add a Ramadan theme to your game, including new or time-limited characters and content. The theme could include historical figures, localized characters, or items such as clothing and content including special mini-games or levels.
• Offer Ramadan-themed creatives; typical Ramadan motifs include the moon, stars, lanterns, and minarets.
• Allow users to play more without additional payment.
• Create special offers and sales.

Enhance your promotion

When you do something special for Ramadan, make sure your audience knows about it. So, in addition to in-game promotion, consider:

• Using your social media channels and videos featuring the new offerings on YouTube to spread the word.
• Consider partnering with local payment partners and carriers. These partners look for special offers they can share with their customers.
• Use push notifications for Ramadan events, particularly for daily events and perks.

Tip: Through all of these activities be mindful that players are fasting during Ramadan, so avoid showing food and beverages.

How other developers found success

Tamatem created an overall look for Ramadan

For Ramadan 2020, Tamatem Inc. adapted Fashion Queen’s environment and promotions to increase engagement and revenue. They changed the game’s icon, Play Store previews, loading screen, background music, outfits, and neighborhood decorations to celebrate Ramadan. They also ran LiveOps for the month that included exclusive Ramadan-themed outfits and events.

These initiatives achieved a 20% increase in average session time per user and a 12% increase in subscription revenues during Ramadan.

“Ramadan is the most anticipated season of the year. We usually expect a 50% revenue increase in our LiveOps promotions and offers during the month and an increase in user engagement. We plan months ahead to ensure the best experience for our users in this special month ,” Dina Rashdan, product manager at Tamatem said.

Rise of Kingdom introduced special Ramadan bundles

In 2020, LilithGames produced a special Ramadan gift bundle in Rise of Kingdoms, and their players loved it.

Following the success in 2020, they created a Ramadan-themed package in 2021 called Stars and Moons. The theme pack contained an Islam Theme Frame, Tome of Knowledge, Dazzling Starlight Sculpture, and other items. The package name and items reinforced the connection to Ramadan. For example, the crescent moon and stars are important symbols in Islam, with the new moon’s crescent signifying the beginning and end of the fasting during Ramadan.

“Ramadan is one of our important seasonal offers. The 2020 Ramadan-themed IAP package brought a 40% increase in a 7-day average billings in Southeast Asia,” the LilithGames operation team said.

Moonton enhanced the festival atmosphere for Ramadan

Moonton localized many of the in-game materials of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang to strengthen the connection between the game and the Middle East community during Ramadan. Updated game elements include:

• Islamic style design elements, such as crescent moons, mosques, and alike.
• Themed designs, including UI and avatar borders.

In 2021, these changes achieved a 15% increase in first-time downloads and a 6% increase in daily active users.

“Satisfying players with in-game cultural elements increases player loyalty and enjoyment. In turn, this helps maintain the healthy long-term operation of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” — Moonton operation team.

Babil Games goes big during Ramadan

Babil Games prepares diligently for the holy month of Ramadan, as it is the crucial event in the year for MENA LiveOps. For their game, Nida Harb 3: Alliance War, this planning culminates in:

• Special offers.
• Exclusive events, including new weekly awards and daily login gifts.
• Exclusive Ramadan-themed and unique base decoration items.
• Chat decorations.
• Social media engagement posts and marketing creatives.

In 2021, these initiatives resulted in a 48% increase in IAP revenues and a 6% increase in daily active users during Ramadan.

“It has always been our focus to provide the best localized content for our players in MENA. Ramadan gives us the opportunity to take this to the next level with amazing themes and a color palette befitting the holy month,” Hisham Haddad, Babil Games General manager said.

Go Global at Ramadan was originally published in Google Play Apps & Games on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Part 1: Learnings from game publishers in APAC

The game publishing model is not a new concept to those in the gaming industry. However, mobile game publishers have become increasingly important given the ever-changing and complex government regulations, higher user expectations for localized content, and the complexity of external environments (such as reduced travel due to the pandemic).

In certain markets, publishers may be the only option for foreign developers to gain entry. So, publishers that can help developers navigate local markets are an integral part of the mobile ecosystem. We conducted surveys and interviews with APAC-based publishers and developers that worked with third-party publishers to better understand the top trends and best practices for building a successful partnership.

To clarify our definitions:

• First party publishing is games self-published by developers.
• Second party publishing is where publishers work with developers closely through a joint venture.
• Third party publishing is where the developer works with an independent publishing company.

In this article, we focus on learnings from publishers, and in the next article, findings from developer’s perspective on third party publishing will be shared.

First, let’s take a look at the basics of how game publishers work.

Out of 28 publishers surveyed across APAC, their priority and challenge is identifying high quality titles to license and publish.

When publishers look for games, they usually reach out directly to developers within their existing pool of network or through various game events. They then select games based on market fit, gameplay, and game metrics. This process has slowed down since the pandemic. Once a publisher identifies a game they’re interested in, the licensing period is usually for two to three years. The deal is often based on a combination of revenue share, minimum guarantee (regardless of actual revenue generated, publisher must pay a certain amount to developer), and an upfront annual licensing fee.

On the partnership side, most publishers rely on developers to support technical optimization or troubleshooting. Some publishers are open to creating a strategic partnership with developers, such as providing guidelines on game design, and even creating a joint venture for future projects.

• A common misconception is that publishers are only looking for short term gain. While some do deploy such a strategy, there are future-looking publishers who are interested in building long-term, sustainable partnerships. This means maintaining a title for three to five years or longer, expanding the game to additional markets, or co-developing new projects. It is in publishers’ best interest to maintain close relationships with trusted developers so they can get first pick on new, promising titles in development.
• Publishers tend to specialize in specific genres and markets so developers can decide the best partner fit based on this information. Developers can reference publishers’ track records to decide on a best fit.
• It’s common for developers to self-publish in markets they’re confident in, and work with publishers in other unfamiliar markets. For big titles, developers may even choose to work with a different publisher in each market. In this case, it is imperative that developers align with publishers across different markets to maintain a fair and consistent pricing and marketing strategy for gamers.
• The greatest value publishers bring is their well established local partnership network. This includes their relationship and knowledge of local influencers, media agencies, IP holders, localization agents, customer service agencies, and community management. Having local partners can be extremely helpful, especially when travel is still restricted in certain regions.
• Publishers provide much more than language translation and customer services. They can also advise on local user behavior study, potential market sizing, marketing optimization, phone or internet specifications test, and provide monetization advice such as pricing. This enables developers to stay focused on their core strengths such as optimizing product stability and content.
• Publishers are often well informed of industry standard metrics and local gamer preference for specific markets. This enables them to tailor liveops events, create meaningful community engagement and advise on gameplay and creative design for UA. Specialization is a highly efficient way for developers to scale up quickly with lower risks.
• Like any successful partnership, both parties need to communicate frequently and openly, with feedback that is based on facts and data. Expanding to new markets is not as simple as copying what was done elsewhere. It requires multiple beta tests, focus groups, A/B tests for creatives, and more to ensure content and gameplay is well designed for local gamers.
• In the past, hard core games such as MMORPG and SLG tended to be the top genres for publishers. However, as the industry evolves, markets are opening up to more genres as gamers have more diverse tastes. This has led publishers to move past only publishing games with strong IP or from big studios. Publishers are also licensing games from small and medium size developers that build mid-core and casual games.

As we look ahead to what the industry will become in the future, publishing businesses may offer modular services, such as community management, customer service, or marketing, instead of a full third-party publishing service.

Due to the pandemic, remote publishing may become the only solution for developers that don’t have local offices. However, it will be increasingly difficult because gamers are more sophisticated and local regulations are constantly changing. It is also near impossible for developers to be an expert in every key market unless they have already reached a certain scale. Local publishers are therefore an important partner for developers to consider when they are at an early stage of global launch, or when they lack bandwidth to closely monitor and optimize for certain markets.

Stay tuned for part 2 where my colleague, Gaby Hien reviews the survey and interview results from the developer point of view. She will also share a best practice checklist based on our learnings. Use this checklist to better identify high quality titles and partners, enable smooth game launch, and mitigate potential issues.

Insights into working with game publishers was originally published in Google Play Apps & Games on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.