Despite fast growth rates, Russia’s online and mobile gaming market still looks modest by size: it reached just $1.4 billion last year, a far cry from China’s $24 billion and significantly less than Europe’s top markets (around $4 billion in the UK and Germany).
However, international publishers and marketers may find unusually attractive conditions in Russia, asserts a report recently published by local mobile marketing agency Zorka.Mobi and German business intelligence provider Adjust, with participation from East-West Digital News.
The report highlights the following facts and data:
- In the mobile gaming segment, Russia is number one in Europe by the number of downloads, with more than 1.6 billion downloads in 2016 — nearly two and four times as many as in the UK and Spain, respectively.
- No less than 116 new mobile games were released last year in Russia (up from 90 in 2015); of them, 40% are offered by foreign publishers.
- The most successful games generate more than $1 million per month on the Russian market.
Marketers will enjoy Russia’s low cost-per-install (CPI) rates — slightly higher than $1, or almost twice as less as US rates and significantly less than in Western Europe or even China.
Average cost-per-install (CPI) in Russia and other key markets (H1 2017)
Source: Zorka expert estimate
Another reason why international publishers should keep an eye on Russia is that its market is still obviously at its very early stage. With 80 million smartphone users in 2017, Russia is Europe’s largest mobile Internet market, the report underlines, and it seems inevitable that the currently generated revenues account for just a fraction of this market’s middle- and long-term potential.
“This is just the beginning of a promising trend. The future is bright for games publishers in Russia!,” says Zorka.Mobi CEO Dmitry Hudoy.
The report offers many other instructive details — from Russian users’ socio-demographic characteristics to subtle international comparisons of engagement and retention rates, — which will be useful to anyone aiming to promote mobile games in Russia.
In addition to data and estimates from Zorka.Mobi and Adjust, the report compiles data from a variety of industry sources, including Newzoo, Prioridata, Statista, StatCounter Global Stats, and others.
Featured image inspired by Freepik
