BARC and Nielsen Media jointly rolled the sixth part of the report on “Crisis Consumption on TV and Smartphones” which says lack of sports has pushed the sports audiences to more virtual connectedness and gaming apps.
The Covid-19 pandemic has led everyone to unprecedented circumstances. BARC and Nielsen have put together for the industry to enlighten how it has impacted television consumption and smartphone usage. BARC and Nielsen Media ran a 12000 strong smartphone panel in India passively capturing smartphone behaviour. During this ongoing lockdown, gaming has surged growth and have kept engaging people. Here are the key findings:
- Gaming, education, and video conference apps are the biggest gainers during COVID lockdown.
- Lack of sports has pushed sports audiences to more virtual connectedness and gaming apps.
- Compared to pre-COVID-19 period , week five and six of COVID-19 lockdown period has witnessed a surge of 30 per cent in gaming. Earlier in third week of COVID-19 lockdown period industry has seen 22 per cent increase in number compared to pre COVID-19 period.
- Spurt of increase for females in gaming and education largely especially on account of older females. More than 49 per cent spent time playing games of which more than 48 per cent are male and more than 55 per cent are females. The numbers of premium audiences of metros, NCCS A1 are more than 52 per cent.
- Gaming has seen a continual increase over the weeks on both reach, time spent, a mix of both kids and adults at home are enjoying gaming.
- The reach for gaming of users has increased to 72 per cent with more than 20 per cent increase of user per week compared to pre-COVID-19 period.
- The total time spent per user per week in 3 hrs 45 mins with more than 49 per cent increase compared to pre COVID-19 period.
- However, time spent (by sports enthusiasts)per user per day has seen a dip of 3 per cent
- Change in timeshare has witnessed more 4 per cent which leads to a total of 9 per cent of COVID disruption share.
- Digital gaming video share in the week of 11 April is 27 per cent whereas the week of 4 April was 40 per cent and the week of 28 March was 33 per cent.
- Going into lockdown gaming enthusiasts were 12 per cent higher on their smartphone consumption and now they are at parity.
- Gaming has seen dynamic evolution with shifts in top-ranking players and some new entrants into the top 30. LUDO KING, PUBG, Candy Crush Saga, Free Fire, Carrom Pool, MPL, PUBG Lite, Blub Smash continued to top the charts week 6. The new entrants into the top 30 include Mini Joy Lite, Call Break, Dr. Driving, Ludo Club, Rummy Circle, Bubble Shooter, ACE 2ThreeRummy.
