According to Mail.Ru Games, in 2011 the total social gaming market in Russia reached $236 million, which is 180% higher than in 2010. Such impressive growth was accompanied by redistribution of the income: developers’ and social networks’ share has increased, while earnings of payment systems decreased.
The Russian social gaming market is booming at an incredible rate. In 2010, its volume in retail prices exclusive of VAT amounted to $84.3 million, while in 2011 this figure reached $236 million. In 2010 payment systems, including carriers, accounted for 40% of the turnover, whereas social networks and developers accounted for 27% and 33% accordingly.
In 2011 social gaming market reached the $236 million mark and witnessed redistribution of income among major players. Payment systems share decreased from 40% to 30%, mainly due to reducing number of mobile payments. By contrast, earnings of social networks and developers grew and amounted to $77.3 and $87.9 million accordingly.
The leading position in the number of installed games occupied Odnoklassniki social network with impressive results – 493 million installations (according to AppData.ru). Another popular Russian social network Vkontakte ranks second with 398 million installations, while My [email protected] lands on the third place with 280 million installations.
Experts believe the market will keep on growing, particularly at the expense of the growing audience of social networks. For instance, according to comScore, the average daily audience of Odnoklassniki social network grew 46% based on results of 2011, My [email protected] gained 21% of the audience, while Vkontakte grew 24%.
“Russian gaming industry is actively growing and social games isone of the highest-growth segments. Its development has been promoted by the policy of the largest market players aimed to support the industry. Specifically, in 2010 My [email protected] social network did not charge developers any commission and provided marketing and advertising support to those who created the best applications. It is worthy of note that the growth of the social games segment exceeded analysts’ expectations. For example, J’Son&Partners research agency estimates that in 2011 the volume of the social gaming market amounts up to 160 million dollars, while the market shot ahead and reached $236 million,” — says Vladimir Nikolsky, Vice-President of the Mail.Ru Group game division.
