Market Overview:
Social gaming refers to playing games against family, friends and other players over social networks and platforms. Social games combine game play with social features such as chatting, comments and feeds and allow players to connect with others. Popular social games include Zynga Poker, FarmVille and Words with Friends, among others. The social gaming market benefits from increasing adoption of smartphones across the globe and growing penetration of internet connectivity.
Market key trends:
The social gaming market is witnessing robust growth driven by rising adoption of mobile gaming, particularly on smartphones. Mobile gaming offers convenience and flexibility to players to play anytime, anywhere through mobile apps. Furthermore, mobile gaming platforms have introduced lightweight hyper-casual games that require minimal time commitment from players but engage them well enough to keep coming back. Major market players are focusing on developing and launching such hyper-casual games to tap the growing demand. In addition, the integration of augmented reality, virtual reality and new game play styles in social gaming is expected to open new growth avenues for market participants over the forecast period.
The global Social Gaming Market Share is estimated to be valued at US$ 17.40 Bn in 2023 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 16.1% over the forecast period 2023 to 2030, as highlighted in a new report published by Coherent Market Insights.
Social games allow players to connect and interact with friends and compete through challenges, quests, and tasks. Popular social games include Cityville, Farmville, Mafia Wars, and Words with Friends. They are available on gaming platforms, mobile apps, and social networking sites. The common types of social games are casual, casual adventure, social board, casual role-playing, and hyper-casual games.
Increased smartphone penetration has been a key driver boosting the growth of the social gaming market. Rising popularity of mobile gaming owing to the easy accessibility on portable devices is expected to further propel the market growth.
According to GSMA Intelligence, the number of unique mobile subscribers grew from 4.1 billion in 2010 to 5.1 billion in 2018 globally. Moreover, rising investments by publishers and developers in developing innovative social games with advanced graphics and immersive storylines is also increasing the popularity of social gaming among users. Zynga, Inc. committed $100 million towards game development in 2019 to launch new franchises and expands existing games. Such heavy investments in developing advanced social games are augmenting the market growth.
