Interaction, achievement, relaxation, cognitive stimulation – these are commonly quoted as the top motivations for gaming. Be it a card game like poker or a battle royale game, gaming fulfils most of these motivations.
Gaming in today’s world involves spending time as well as spending funds. You can spend on the game, in-game assets, and other in-app purchases. This is rather low in casual and hyper-casual games. However, someone with hours of gaming experience or good knowledge of rummy and poker rules does not mind spending on the game and around it.
With women amounting to 44% of the total Indian gamers, a look at the role of gender in these motivations and spending behaviour is hugely important for the stakeholders.
Key Motivations in Gaming
A lot of studies have been done to understand the motivation behind gaming. The findings are crucial for developers as reference points during game development. Researchers have devised the Motivation to Play Scale (MOPS) to understand general gaming motivation.
The Lumikai State of India Interactive Media and Gaming Report FY24 identifies three top motivations for gaming. These are relaxation and destressing, socialising, and creativity and self-expression. When it comes to spending motivation, the top motivations are unlocking new content, upgrading in-game items and earning potential. One-fourth of the total gamers in India spend on gaming, which is consistent with the findings of the previous year as well. This means that paying gamers in India is around 148 million.
We can also see that gaming preference continues to evolve within the gaming community. For instance, 51% of the casual-only gamers ventured out to other games during the year. 18% of the non-spending gamers opted to spend on games during FY24.
In the end, it is the motivation behind playing, as well as the games that you play, that define the spending pattern of the gamers. Both these factors are quite different among men and women, which explains the critical role played by gender in gaming preferences and spending behaviour.
The Genres and Gender Divide
Women are known to spend more hours per week than men, on average. They match their male counterparts in game genres like role-playing, combat games, and action and adventure games. According to a study, 23% of gamers play role-playing games, and 18% of them like combat games as well. This percentage is the same among men and women. Similarly, exactly 16% of male and female gamers play action and adventure games.
However, 36% of male gamers play shooter games, compared to 30% of the women. In battle royale games, the male presence is even more significant, with 33% of men playing them compared to only 18% of women. Sports-related games also have a strong male following, with 22% of them playing these games, compared to 15% of women.
But then, some genres are noticeably more popular among women. Their preference is significantly higher than that of male gamers in genres like casual games, card games, educational entertainment, music, dance and rhythm games, etc. It is a known fact that more women prefer casual games compared to men. 10% of women are interested in educational games, compared to only 4% of men. Similarly, 7% of women play music, dance and rhythm games, compared to only 2% of male gamers.
When it comes to online card games, more women are interested in their rummy and poker games than men. This is in stark contrast to the physical card gaming scene. For instance, men are considered to be better in poker rules than women, based on the former’s overwhelming participation in physical poker games. However, the presence of a large number of women poker rules experts on popular platforms like Pocket52 tells a different story.
It could be surmised that the relaxed environment of an online card game platform matches the female gaming motivation.
Preferences Deciding Spending Patterns
The latest Lumikai report indicates that two of the top three payment motivators are not necessarily related to real money games. Unlocking new content and upgrading in-game items are typical to genres like shooter games, battle royal games, combat games, sports-based games, etc. Interestingly, these are also genres where the male presence is dominant.
Women, on the other hand, have expectations like destressing and relaxation from games, which explains their love for puzzles, simulation and social games, in addition to the genres mentioned above. Escapism and skill development are the other common motivations among women. Based on the genre-wise preferences, male gamers can end up spending more on games compared to female gamers. However, if we compare only paying gamers, female gamers are known to spend 8.5% more than male gamers every month.
Narrowing Gender Gap
With the gender gap narrowing every year, the preferences of both genders are becoming equally important. At 67%, in-app purchases continue to be the most popular form of payment in gaming. Game developers can use their gender-based preferences and behavioural insights to leverage such purchases.
