Online Gaming Records 50% Increase In Ad Spends During Corona-Times

Leading industry players like Adda52Rummy, Poker Baazi, 9Stacks etc have recorded a 25%-30% surge in their overall business over last fortnight. Driven by thing growth, they're also increasing ads spends up to 50% to reach out to the people who are online reading news or watching Netflix. The ad spends are mostly on social media platforms and online news portals.

Wonder Why?

Well! Experts reveal that the major driver of this growth is the cancellation of other sports. While all the live sports tournaments are postponed or cancelled, online games see a spurt in traffic. As firms go into shutdown mode due to novel coronavirus, the online gaming industry is perfectly keeping the audience engaged.

TheBigStack, which has launched 5 new campaigns around Covid-19, have also increased their daily ad spend by 35% approximately. 

Ritesh Tanu, Co-Founder, The Big Stack revealed that they're seeing a significant surge in their traffic. 

We have recorded 10x growth in terms of traffic, 3x in web registration and 2x growth in paying customers, told Tanu. He also shared that the majority of their traffic is coming from Tier II towns like Patna, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Indore.

Add52Rummy, another leading name in the online gaming industry saw 18% growth in the time spent by a user every day on their platform.

The activity of existing players has improved and players are spending more time on the apps.

"We are observing a 50% increase in new users daily as skill-based games like Rummy has proven to be effective in distracting and keeping players engaged during the lockdown. Also, existing users’ gameplay has jumped by about 100%," Ashish Bhakuni is the Head of Marketing.

As the digital revolution has helped make an easy way for the rapid growth of the online gaming industry. Bhakuni told that there is a huge increase in users from north India, specifically a 35% user base increase in Haryana wherein Gurgaon & Faridabad contribute about 50% of the spike.

Varun Ganjoo, Marketing Director at PokerBaazi.com told that in the times of social distancing, their overall ad spends have moved to digital over last fortnight." There is more visibility from across these channels for now," told Ganjoo.

According to Ganjoo more than half of their traffic comes directly from social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Poker Dangal too increased its marketing spends by 50% and is aggressively trying to reach out to the consumers. 

Varun Mahna, CEO & Founder, Poker Dangal believes that the traffic has increased in the month of March owing to the lockdown and people working from home. The average Daily Active User in February was ~5000-5500 on average. It has increased by 30% and is around 7000-7500 in the month of March.

The Poker Dangal has increased its ad spends by 50% and is aggressively using digital marketing to reach to more and more players.

Even the playing hours are completely changed during this lockdown. Sudhir Kamath, CEO & Co-Founder, 9Stacks said, historically, peak timings for our app are evenings, say 7 PM to midnight. However, during the Covid lockdown period, we're seeing a significant surge in the number of users logging in and playing during the daytime.

"We're seeing more than 100% surge in new registrations each day; about 40-50% increase in daily active users, and 60%+ surge in daily revenue compared to the pre-lockdown period. I'm also attaching some graphs showing the impact of the Covid lockdown," he highlighted.

While everyone is quarantined in their home, digital advertising is also seeing a rise. Kamath told, they're not also doing indirect marketing on digital platforms. "We have run some social media initiatives talking to customers about dos and don'ts during the lockdown. We find that users are engaging with such content," he told.

There are around 391 active companies in this space currently, in India. As per Tracxn, a firm that tracks investments and financials of start-ups and private companies, investments in the gaming industry have been on the rise since 2017. In 2019, the sector received a record funding $66.6 million. 

 To capitalise the current growth and to encourage more and more people, gaming companies are also coming up with new features, plans and campaigns. The Big Stack, for instance, has made their plans affordable for all during the lockdown period, they've slashed their price down by 90%.