Surge in social gaming during the lockdown

People stuck at home are majorly turning to OTT and gaming platforms for entertainment. The surge being observed currently is definitely temporary. However, COVID-19 has helped the gaming industry evolve at a faster pace, says Saumya Singh Rathore, Co-Founder, WinZO Games.

Has there been a surge in the gaming industry during the COVID-19 lockdown and what does that look like in terms of statistics and specific games being played?

The need to stay connected and socialize during this pandemic is causing this surge in Social Gaming. We are seeing the multiplayer modes on the platform grow three folds. Private tournaments and Vs-Mode (a feature wherein players play with friends & family) on our app has grown considering people are playing with their friends online amid the lockdown, suggesting that people are interested in connecting with their friends/loved ones online via gaming these days—almost as if gaming is a conversation facilitator. Multiplayer games like Carrom, Ludo and Battle Royale have seen twice the game play time. Moreover, there has been an increase in playing time for casual games like Bubble Shooter, Knife Up, Subway surfer. Activity on the social features of the app such as video and audio usage during game play has also doubled.

Time spent and the number of users has grown to almost 5X, recording an all-time high. We are observing a 30% spike in Tier-1 traffic daily on our platform, though we do not even market our product to this category of audience, we are a Tier 2 to Tier 5 focused vernacular product where 80% of the audience is consuming the app in vernacular languages. Hence, we are consciously evolving the content on the platform to meet the entertainment needs of this new audience that we are adopting. We tied up with Tencent Games and Garena for PUBG Mobile and FreeFire in this lockdown. We also added Chess and Ludo within a span of 2 days to cater to this new audience. These games are made available for free on the platform. Our focus is less on monetization and more on facilitating smooth social connections possible for the world to feel less isolated—to reduce the mental health impact—if we lose some revenue in the process, it’s not a big loss. Interestingly, we have also observed increased game plays by female gamers (1.5 times) on games like candy crush and cooking competition games.

What does the future of the gaming industry now look like in the post-Covid era and how will gaming apps pan out?

People stuck at home are majorly turning to OTT and Gaming platforms for entertainment. The surge being observed currently is definitely temporary. Covid has for sure helped the gaming industry evolve at a faster pace. At WinZO the peak hours/ prime time for gaming has changed to 11am to 5pm, which was earlier 7pm to 11 pm in the evening. This shows people are spending more time during the day playing online games—and spending the evenings with the family. Our concurrent users are increasing day on day at 30%-40%. The paid conversions have increased by 20%, suggesting that the sentiment of paying is not impacted—yet.

Having said that, we think we will not be seeing the same rate of growth as of now post lockdown as the number of hours you get in a day for entertainment and gaming will reduce drastically. At the same time, we strongly feel, the word of mouth of the quality gaming platforms will keep seeing steady growth post lockdown as well.

The outdoor sporting industry has severely been affected. How can online gaming both compete and complement that? Will online and virtual gaming enter a new era, and can the top sportspersons participate in virtual games?

Online gaming is in trend for half a decade now. People are preferring to participate in activities indoor than in the field. Moreover, people are consuming the outdoor sports sitting at home via live broadcast. Amid the pandemic, even the outdoor sports are going online! For instance, F1 Racers of India, Narain Karthikeyan, Armaan Eibrahim and Aditya Patil went racing virtually last week to help Seed, a charity that provides for the frontline health care workers. There are a lot of e-Sports tournaments happening these days where renowned sports persons are competing with their followers online.

What is the gaming scene in India? Your games are available in 10 languages. How has that impacted Tier 2/3 town and rural India?

India is the biggest hot spot for online gaming in the world, with mobile gaming revenues set to reach US$1.1 billion in this financial year. Much of this boom can be credited to the growth of sustainable digital infra built by Jio and a wide choice of affordable and powerful handsets. India clocks the highest numbers when it comes to the number of game downloads and number of games published. More than 300 million people who adopted smartphones for the first time are now spending an average 40-45 playing minutes daily on their devices. The industry has come a long way from its humble beginnings with the entry of fantasy sports to today’s growing popularity of e-sports and skill-based gaming. Today, the number of players in the Indian gaming ecosystem has almost doubled. The number is growing at an exponential rate.

Amid the lockdown following the coronavirus outbreak, online gaming has observed a huge surge in India, especially social gaming platforms like WinZO. With people stuck at home for more time and parted from their loved ones, they are connecting with them over a common activity that is via online gaming. Demand for board games such as Ludo and Carrom has increased ten-folds in India. Private modes have picked up on our platform indicating that people prefer to play with their friends. 80% of the audience is consuming the app in vernacular languages from the Tier 2 -5 rural India. 20% of this non-metro audience is making their first digital media and entertainment payment on our platform. The lockdown has resulted in a 30% surge of Tier 2-5 traffic on our app.

You have talked of empowering housewives and schoolteachers in rural Bharat and providing them a parallel stream of income. Can you elaborate on that?

WinZO is catering its users in 12 regional languages. We have partnered with over 750+ housewives for translating trivia and app assets on the platform in different languages. To facilitate the entire process, We have built a centralized Language Management system where the translators can login and work at their convenience from any part of India. This strategy not only helps WinZO remain lean as an organization but also helps bring an authentic vernacular experience to the users with the language that they use in daily lives and not orthodox textbook language which is not socially used. For instance, Angela, 35 years old another Hindi translator who puts-up in Nagpur-Maharashtra, had to quit her teaching job and is earning Rs. 15,000-20,000 monthly to support her needs. She believes that such opportunities empower women economically and makes them feel wanted in the society. WinZO has also helped her pick up new skills in this electronic world.

How are you personally coping with this lockdown and any specific tips to companies and WFH employees to manage things better?

Man is a social being who thrives and excels in the company of other human beings. Among many global health, economic and societal disruptions, the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has forced millions to isolate. Combining that with media coverage on the pandemic and high degree of uncertainty in all aspects of life, is leaving people in a state of panic. It is very difficult for us, Indians, to solve for mental wellbeing. We were mostly solving for basics most of our lives. Ability to solve for mental wellbeing was always seen as a luxury. But this pandemic has impacted all of us immensely emotionally. So, let us take a minute to recognize and establish that. Luckily for me I am a psychology student and these things strike me upfront.

As a measure, to cope with stress and take care of one’s well-being during this time of hardship one should try to get a healthy routine in place with time to exercise for at least 45 mins, take optimum sleep, respect your mind and let it calm down. Hydration is also important. Filter out obsession of trying to know everything about Covid and over-consumption content. I understand this is a time of distress, so reach out to friends and family and give yourself the emotional space to express. Most importantly, I want to highlight compassion is the most under-estimated soother. So many people need help in so many ways, reach out for an act of compassion—I promise you will be left feeling better. Observe nature—it is at its beautiful best.

Active communication is a key when working from home. A team leader should be proactive in assigning work and in resolving issues/dependencies that may arise out of it. I think the team leader should actively ask the team if they need any guidance or escalation with the work that they are doing. It's critical that we also consider that lives are disrupted, people are not just managing work but they are also managing a lot more in the absence of household help and additional responsibilities—apart from focusing on timelines, manager should also empathise with the context in which their teams are operating and support in whichever way possible. More than checking on the deliverables, it's critical that the manager takes initiative to reinforce that the members would be fine- proactively dismiss/address any ambiguity related to job threats and wage cuts.