A new study shows that while there is an even amount of men and women playing mobile games today, the behavior of each group while playing certainly differs.
A survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Amazon, polled 880 mobile gamers and found three key findings: Men are more competitive than women in mobile gaming; women are less social about their mobile gaming experience; and women are leading the trend toward the free-to-play format.
“The traditionally-held competitive attitudes of male gamers appear to ring true in the mobile gaming landscape, and our survey data provides several scenarios that showcase these behaviors,” the study noted.
It also found that women are less likely to share their top scores in mobile games and complain about bugs or glitches. But while women are less social about their mobile gaming experiences, they seem to be a driving force behind the free-to-play format: 84 percent of women prefer free-to-play vs. 77 percent of men, and only 27 percent of women are willing to pay for a game compared to 40 percent of men.
So what can game developers learn? Here’s what the study recommended:
- Developers should consider the balance of leaderboards and achievements within their games. For example, females may be more apt to work towards achievements as self-motivation vs. getting to the top of a leaderboard.
- If developers have a game that they think is more female-friendly, it might make sense to publish it as F2P, given female preferences noted above.
- Developers may use the data as rationale to change their marketing strategies. If they have a female-focused game, and see that reviews aren’t really helping drive sales, they may want to allocate more marketing funds to another means of getting the word out for their title.
