New Delhi: Other than video calling, it was mobile gaming that took India by storm during the lockdowns and social distancing times. As parents got busy with remote work and struggled to maintain the work-life balance, the popularity of mobile games surged among the youth, especially millennials and Gen Z.
With the Covid-hit year entering its last leg, Indians were spending around 7 hours in a week on playing games on their mobiles and the duration increased among the majority (53 per cent) since the lockdown that began early this year. Interestingly, 15 per cent of the gamers switched to paid mobile gaming apps during the lockdown while freemium gaming apps increased by 8 per cent.
According to the CyberMedia Research (CMR) report that came out in November, mobile gaming increased among three in every five serious gamers, with four hours being the average duration of increase since the lockdown began in the country. Indian men mostly played action/adventure (71 per cent) and first-persons shooter (63 per cent) games on their smartphones.
The ‘Call of Duty Mobile’ and the ‘Garena Free Fire’ were the popular first-person shooter games. Among women, the most popular type of the game was puzzles (65 per cent), followed by multiplayer gamers (56 per cent). Here are the top 5 mobile games that ruled the screens this year.
- Among Us
- Ludo King
- PUBG Mobile
- Pokemon Go
- Garena Free Fire