Gaming Vouchers Market and Country Insights

Gaming Market Overview 2021

Looking at the gaming market in 2021 and beyond, game spend and app usage are expected to continue levelling up. Global consumer spend on mobile gaming is set to reach $120 billion by the end of 2021 alone – that’s 3.1x more than gaming consoles.

App Annie suggests that Brazil, Indonesia and Russia are set to be great opportunities “for local and foreign mobile game publishers and investors”. India has seen the most gaming downloads globally in 2021, followed by USA, Brazil and Indonesia. USA is the country with the most mobile spend, however “Saudi Arabia and Turkey saw phenomenal growth in consumer spend on mobile games, at around 60% and 35% respectively in 2020 compared to the year prior”.

At a regional level for consumer spend in mobile games, with over 45% of market share Asia Pacific (APAC) remained the world’s biggest region, however this is levelling off as the USA, Germany and UK get set to rival the leaderboard.

Game On with Online Gaming Vouchers

Gamers often use game subscriptions or in-game currencies to fund in-game play – either of which is not convenient to run out of mid-game. Instead of journeying to a nearby shop, digital gaming vouchers and gift cards (often with digital codes) can be purchased conveniently online within seconds, where and when they are needed – so gaming doesn’t have to be paused or disrupted.

Other benefits of gaming vouchers are that new subscriptions can be tested out to ensure users are happy before committing, while pre-paid codes and vouchers can help control gaming spend.

The digital gift card and voucher market has grown significantly in the last 18 to 24 months, largely driven by lockdown restrictions and consumer appetite to purchase online – this is predicted to increase by 25% in the next decade. Year on year sales of online gift cards and eVouchers soared by 117% during the second half of 2020.

It seems that stores are also upping the presence of digital gaming vouchers in the run up to Christmas after a recent Gift Card and Voucher Association (GCVA) State of the Nation report showed that “44.6% of respondents had made gift card purchases within the past three years influenced by displays in physical stores.”

Carrier Billing can Level Up Gaming Vouchers

Gamers are always looking for the next key gaming trends – whether that’s gaming tokenization, cloud gaming or esports. During H1 2021, over 810 games exceeded $1M in consumer spend each month, with 7 surpassing $100M.

There are increased opportunities in mobile app store monetisation for games, driven by increased demand on mobile, as well as increased payments options including direct carrier billing – in countries like Japan “carrier billing has long offered customers the convenience to make purchases instantly, without the need to enter their card details online. This reduces friction for mobile in-app purchases and helps boost per-user spending.”

Today’s mobile driven world allows every smartphone owner to carry a portable gaming console in the palm of their hand, whether they identify as a gamer or not. In fact, 80% of those who do not list gaming among their interests regularly enjoy games on their smartphone, and 86% of internet users play games on at least one device.

Carrier billing can take mobile payments to the next level, making it easy for users to add gaming vouchers, gift cards, tokens and top-ups to their mobile phone bills – especially beneficial in markets with a low card penetration.

And it’s not just online gaming vouchers for consoles like PlayStation and Xbox, or mobile games such as PUBG that can be purchased with carrier billing. Digital stores can benefit from selling music, video streaming and app store gift cards in this way too, making digital payments easy and accessible so that consumers can have greater access to a range of entertainment services worldwide.

Contact SLA Digital today to find out more about unlocking simple, seamless and secure mobile payment solutions.