Android Game Revenues Exceed $4 Million in Fiscal 2019-20

EghtesadOnline: Iranian Android game industry’s net income reached 690 billion rials ($4.2 million) in the last fiscal year that ended on March 19, 2020, marking a 47% increase year-on-year, the annual report of Iran’s leading Android market Cafe Bazaar shows.

News ID: ۷۵۰۵۰۰

22 July 2020

With more than 43 million users, Cafe Bazaar is Iran’s largest mobile app publisher. It publishes seasonal and annual reports on its website, Blog.cafebazaar.ir.

Based on the statistical report, more than six million purchases, including paid app downloads, in-app purchases and subscriptions, were conducted in the online market, indicating a 20% hike YOY.

The value of each transaction for game applications averaged 115,000 rials (52 cent). In addition, December 2019 and February 2020 registered the highest transaction traffic in the year.

A total of 127,000 applications were published on Café Bazaar, 18,000 of which were mobile games.

The report also carries diagrams showing that the total number of games published on the online service saw a 42% year-on-year fall. The number of game developer teams, however, seemed to increase by 32%, reaching 5,000.

Although only 30.2% of game developers are in Tehran, the city’s share of income reached 87.5%.

After Tehran, the provinces of Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan have the largest number of game developer teams with a respective share of 8.3% and 7.7%.

In terms of net income, Tehran is followed by Khorasan Razavi with 2.2%. The income value of game developers in all other provinces accounted for the remaining 10.3%.

Of the total number of 18,000 game apps, 36.6% were designed in Tehran, 10.6% in Khorasan Razavi and 9.6% in West Azarbaijan.

More Statistics

In the last fiscal year that ended in March, Café Bazaar attracted over 7 million new users, recording a 20% year-on-year growth in its install base.

The number of active gamers in Iran reached 29 million who downloaded and updated Android games over 670 million times, registering a 16% rise compared to a year before.

Strategic, family, recreational and action games respectively had the highest income growth rate during the year.

The data show that word puzzle, sports, adventure and educational games showed a sudden but short-term growth in February-March 2020.

Users rated mobile games over 30 million times. The highest rate was 4.64 for words and general information games.

In all business sectors, users’ input plays a pivotal role in enhancing consumer experience and product quality, and the Android industry is no exemption.

Just like every other app market, Cafe Bazaar encourages customer reviews on the apps offered by the platform.

Age Groups

Statistics released by Iran’s Digital Games Research Center confirm conventional expectations that a majority of gamers (36%) are teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19.

Teenagers are followed by children under the age of 12, constituting 31% of players. The young generation between the ages of 20 and 34 accounts for 26% of the gamer population.

The numbers turn surprisingly interesting as the age groups increase. Out of the 28 million gamers, 6% are between the ages of 35 and 59.

Finally, 1% of gamers, constituting 280,000 individuals 60 years or older; showcasing the pervasive nature of gaming even among the generations not acquainted with the digital world such as millennials.

Overall, the average age of a gamer is 19 years.

Iran’s share of games

According to DIREC, the games generally published on Café Bazaar are categorized into three groups: locally developed, foreign and those developed by international studios, which have been modified for the Iranian market.

Some local firms dub or subtitle videogames and publish them on platforms like Café Bazaar. These are categorized as locally modified.

DIREC reported that in 2019, of the 37,148 games published on Café Bazaar, only 28% of the games were locally made. Close to 58% of the games were made by foreign firms and 14% were classified as locally modified.

However, industry insiders say that with the increasing number of gamers in the country, domestic videogame companies are growing constantly.

In addition, Iran has over 150 game development companies, each of which employ 8 to 12 people while bigger enterprises average 30 employees.