Game Industry Boom In Russia: What Gamers Spend Money On

Within first five months of 2021, the number of purchases via gaming resources in Russia has increased by 30%, as compared to the same period in 2020. The average spend increased by 62% and amounted to 367 rubles, while the average number of orders per one game lover came up to eight (+64%). This is evidenced by analytics of YooMoney and CheckIndex (source: Izvestia).

Besides, the demand for game consoles has significantly increased during five months of this year. The sales in offline and online stores in pcs increased 5.5 times as compared to 2020 and 3.6 times as compared to 2019.

Within first five months of 2021, Saint Petersburg showed the biggest growth in the number of game fans among Russian regions (4.2 times), and Arkhangelsk Oblast demonstrated the biggest growth in the number of game purchases (twice).

Sales Dynamics of Mobile Games

Experts from App Annie and Wargaming state that the first quarter of 2021 turned out to be most successful for the mobile game industry since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia.

Summarizing the results of January to March this year, Russian users have spent $235 million on mobile games (16.9 billion rubles at the exchange rate of the Russian Federation Central Bank as of June 14), which is 11% more than one year before. At that, Russians downloaded 727 million apps (in the first quarter of 2020, 686 million downloads were recorded).

Russia takes the fifth place by mobile game revenue, outpaced by China, Brazil, the USA, and India.

Preferred Games

The greater half of the audience (54.5%) prefers multiplayer games, while others choose single-player ones. Favorite game genres include shooters (59.6%), RPG (56.4%), and actions (53.8%). Strategies (40.5%), simulators (37.4%), and MOBA (35.1%) enjoy a lesser popularity. Only 15.8% respondents are MMO fans, 12.2% play quests, and fighting games are loved by 9.4% only, as shown in a survey by Sports.ru conducted in addition to the study.

The vast majority of the gamers surveyed (83.3%) choose desktop games, while the others prefer mobile. PS4 leads among consoles, used by 32.2% of gamers, while only 8.3% have PS5. Nintendo Switch is preferred by 4% only, Xbox One and One X by 3.4%, and Xbox Series S and X are played by 2.5%.

Besides, 45.2% respondents to the survey make purchases once in several months, and 20% do it only once a year. 16.8% gamers are ready to spend on games once a month, 8% several times a month, and 1.1% every week. The remaining 8.9% respondents told that they do not buy games. Most respondents (65.3%) spend up to 1,000 rubles per month on games, 31.3% spend from 1,000 to 5,000 rubles, and 3% spend from 5,000 to 10,000 rubles. 0.4% only are ready to spend more than 10,000 rubles on games every month. In-game expenses to get access to certain options are also spread among gamers. 83.8% users make such purchases once in several months.

That said, 39.6% spend fewer than 1,000 rubles on in-game items, while 10.8% spend from 1,000 to 5,000 rubles. As compared to 2018, the level of expenses on games did not change for 27.9% of the gamers surveyed. 28% began spending less, 25.1% began spending a bit more, and 19% much more.

What is Bought in Games

According to MY.GAMES, Russian gamers spend money most often on purchasing in-game currency and items on PC, consoles, and mobile devices, while loot boxes are in little demand.

• The most popular expenditure item is in-game currency. 47% of PC gamers and 46% of mobile gamers, as well as 39% of console users spend money on it.
• In-game items are most often bought by console (43%) and PC (44%) gamers.
• DLC are bought by 25% of console gamers. This figure is much lower among PC users (17%).
• Console gamers also actively buy subscription (40%), in-game characters (39%), and various boosts (36%).
• Premium accounts are most often bought by PC users (30% of the audience).
• Almost one third of mobile gamers spend money on clues and energy for characters. However, less than one fourth of users are ready to pay for an opportunity to block ads.
• Russian gamers spend money on loot boxes least often. They are bought by 14% of PC gamers, 16% of console gamers, and 19% of mobile users only.

Source: RBK.ru on the study by MyGames, 2020, audience share, %

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