Popular Mobile Games in Iran

According to data published on DIREC.ir, 24.7 million Iranians play mobile games. On average each player spends 890,000 rials ($6.3) on mobile games every year. The annual turnover of Iran’s mobile games market is 2.3 trillion rials ($16.4 million). 

Through the survey, 8,000 people were questioned. The results show 64% of the gamers are men. People spend 73 minutes playing mobile games every day. Men spend 78 minutes playing are more into their cellphones compared to women who play 63 minutes.

The most popular mobile game genres in Iran are puzzle, platformer/runner, arcade, driving, and sports, Financial Tribune reported.

Top three popular mobile games among women were locally developed word game Baghlava, virtual pet game Pou, and Clash of Clans. This is while men said Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Baghlava are the games they enjoy most.

In recent months the locally developed word game Baghlava has gone viral. A ride on the Tehran subway shows the extent to which many are engrossed in the game.

The report classifies the results based on where the individuals live. Results from rural areas show that in addition to the aforementioned games, Angry Birds is popular with people in rural areas.

Initially released in 2009, Angry Birds is a video game franchise created by Finnish company Rovio Entertainment. The series focuses on multi-colored birds who try to save their eggs from green-colored pigs, their enemies. While many have ditched Angry Birds for new games, in rural areas Angry Birds is still popular.

> Clash Games

Two mobile strategy video games developed by Finnish game developer Supercell, namely Clash of Clans and Clash Royale are vastly popular with Iranians.

Clash of Clans, a mobile strategy video game, was released for iOS platforms in August 2012, and on Google Play for Android in October 2013.

Released in March 2016, Clash Royale combines elements from collectible card games, tower defense, and multiplayer online battle arena. It made $1 billion in revenues in less than a year in the global market.

Clash Royale is a tower rush video game that pits players in games featuring two or four players in which the objective is to destroy the most amount of opposing towers. In the game, players are ranked by their number of trophies, which are won or lost through multiplayer battles. 

Iranians who are advanced in the games and have established “strong virtual clans” or have won many “trophies” sell their accounts online. The market for such accounts is relatively heated among teenagers.

> More Statistics

In addition to downloading games directly from the developers’ websites, players get mobile games from local application stores including Cafe Bazaar, Myket, and AvvalMarket, along with Google Play and Apple’s App Store. An estimated 83% of the gamers have access to the Internet. The survey also shows that 95% of the gamers have Android handsets.

The average age of gamers is 18. Some 67% of the players are younger than 19 years, 7% are over 35, and only 1% are over 60. Some 47% of those surveyed said they totally disregard the age rating of the games and only 25% always check age ratings.

Data also indicates that 78% of the gamers are single, 6% are married but have no children and 16% have kids.

Education-wise, 67% of the gamers do not have a high school diploma while 18% have some form of academic education.

Close to 89% of those surveyed said their preferred platform for gaming is their smartphone compared to gaming consoles and computers.