Video Games Popular With Iran Kids

EghtesadOnline: Almost a quarter of the 28 million Iranians who play video games are children under 12 years of age, the results of a survey conducted by Iran’s Digital Games Research Center (DIREC) and a local market study firm Hitech Monitor show.

News ID: ۷۴۶۲۳۱

17 November 2018

Published on DIREC’s website (DIREC.ir), the report indicates that more 7 million children under the age of 12 regularly play video games.

Video games are more popular with boys and 60% of children who play digital games are male.

As expected. the survey showed that kids living in major urban areas start playing video games earlier compared to their peers in rural areas because they have more access to smartphones, tablets, and computers. Children in urban areas also spend more time on digital games, according to Financial Tribune.

In urban areas, boys on average play video games for 120 minutes in a day while girls spend 90 minutes. The nationwide results are significantly lower, with boys playing 87 minutes and girls 67 minutes.

Close to 30% of the kids at least play video games twice every day. The average time spent by kids on video games in Iran is 81 minutes.

Most kids start playing video games at the age of six. The report further shows that some kids start playing video games as soon as they turn three. Some 26% of the kids playing video games are less than six years old and 74% are between seven and 12.

Preferred Gaming Platform

Smartphones and tablets are the preferred gaming platforms with some 90% of the kids using the smart gadgets for playing video games while personal computers and gaming consoles are used by 10% of the kids for playing games.

The most popular mobile game genres among children in Iran are platformer/runner, arcade, driving, puzzle, and strategy.

According to the report, most kids play freemium games and only 6% buy video games.

Freemium is a pricing strategy by which a product or service is provided for free, but money is charged for additional features, services, or virtual or physical goods, which are commonly categorized as in-app purchases.

Only 28% of the kids play games online. In major cities the number of kids who have access to the Internet and play online almost doubles with 42% of them playing online games.

Iranian kids mostly download games from local Android market Cafe Bazaar. Google Play services, along with local app markets like Iran Apps, and Myket are also used for downloading games.

DIREC had said earlier that Iran has 28 million gamers, annually spending 9.2 trillion rials ($74 million) on video games, gaming consoles, and accessories.

It also said 24.7 million Iranians play mobile games. On average each player spends 890,000 rials ($7) on mobile games every year. The annual turnover of Iran’s mobile games market is 2.3 trillion rials ($18.4 million).