28% of Iranian Villagers Hooked on Video Games

EghtesadOnline: A total of 6.7 million video gamers live in Iranian villages, accounting for 24% of the total number of Iranian players.

News ID: ۷۴۸۰۷۵

05 August 2019

A nationwide survey conducted by Digital Games Research Center (DIREC) also showed that from every 100 Iranian villagers, 28 play video games.

The research defines a gamer as someone who plays digital games at least an hour a week on one of the three common platforms of mobile phones, consoles or computers.

DIREC further reports that 91% of these people play mobile games while 22% use computers for playing and 12% have gaming consoles, Financial Tribune reported.

Only 16% of the gamers living in rural areas spend money on games. In the fiscal 2017-18, these gamers spent 1 trillion rials ($27 million) on video games. The USD exchange rate was 37,000 rials at the time of the survey.

Each gamer living in rural areas spends 80 minutes playing video games, 45% of whom play video games every day. Furthermore, 40% of gamers living in rural areas play online.

The report further categorizes gamers age-wise: 34% of them are children under the age of 12, 39% are between 12 and 19 years, 22% are between 20 and 34 years and 5% are above the age of 35. The average age of gamers living in rural areas is 17.

Video games are less popular with village women, as 65% of the villagers playing video games are men. Some 78% of them are not married, 5% are married without children, 16% are married with children and 1% fall in other categories.

The top five computer and console games among these players were FIFA, Counter Strike, GTA, Pro Evolution Soccer and Call of Duty.

The most popular mobile games among them were Clash of Clans, Quiz of Kings, Pou, Clash Royale and Baghlava.

Most gamers use Samsung and Huawei handsets for playing. The most used devices for playing games after smartphones are laptops made by Sony, Lenovo and ASUS.

Nationwide Gamers

There are 28 million gamers in Iran, annually generating 9.2 trillion rials ($248 million) in revenues for the gaming market.

The number of Iranian gamers has seen a staggering 21% jump, reaching 28 million by March 2018 compared to earlier data from March 2016 when the number stood at 23 million.

A gender-based analysis of the data reveals that out of the 28 million gamers, 65% are men and 35% are women. Almost half of the gamers (47%) plays every single day of the week.

In the country of 81 million people, out of every 100 Iranians, 35 are considered gamers. Out of every 100 men and 100 women, 45 and 24 respectively play games regularly.

On average, each Iranian household accommodates one player in the family who spends 90 minutes per day playing games.

On average, each Iranian spends 31 minutes per day to games.

Popular Games

The five most popular game genres are respectively puzzle, platformer/runner, racing/driving, sports and lastly arcade.

The mobile strategy video game Clash of Clans ranks as the most popular game among Iranians, followed by the football game Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) and the action-adventure series Grand Auto Theft.

Ranked fourth in the list is the first-person shooter video game Counter Strike. The fifth-place belongs to another sports video game FIFA, the arch-rival of PES.

The first local game on the list is ranked sixth, the popular word game Baghlava developed by Brain Ladder Game Studio.

Next on the list are the mobile tower rush video game Clash Royale, the world-renowned shooter game Call of Duty and fun virtual pet game Pou.

The 10th most widely-played game in Iran is also local, the trivia quiz game Quiz of Kings that has turned into a sensation among Iranian youth.

Platforms and Access

Nearly 88% of gamers use mobile handsets to venture into the gaming world. The second device most widely used by players is computers and comprises 25% while 18% use gaming consoles such as PlayStation or Xbox.

About 2% of those surveyed have reported using handheld consoles.

Iranians chiefly use devices made by Samsung for gaming purposes, followed by Sony, Huawei, Lenovo and lastly Microsoft.

The report further states that according to statistics released by the Internet World Stats, the country's Internet penetration rate stands at 70%. Roughly 84% of the gamers have Internet access and 48% play games online.

Almost 59% of the players access the Internet via mobile services followed by broadband landline services (21%), WiMAX (5%) and dial-up (1%).