The lockdown witnessed not just an increase in gaming as more people were playing and using games as a way to stay connected, but also the growth of Twitter conversations around this topic, creating a huge opportunity to reach fans who don’t just follow gaming brands on the platform.

“Southeast Asia is driving the results; it’s the hotspot of the mobile gaming industry,” according to Martyn U’ren, head of research, APAC & MENA, Twitter. “Developers are making games that are scaling not only within the region but going to a global market as well.”

Not only that, but access is becoming easier. In India, for example, free public wi-fi is being fitted at train stations. “A million people work at and use those stations, so a million people now have access to free broadband,” he pointed out. “What you’re doing is removing the obstacles to gaming.”

A recent discussion between the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Twitter revealed that over a quarter (28%) of Twitter’s users are more likely to be involved in gaming than the overall online population.

Further, the initial COVID-19 lockdown period saw a boost of 55% year-on-year engagement in APAC, coinciding with a drift away from TV as new content dried up.

Twitter has been able to analyse gamers' conversations on the platform to obtain key insights about targeting this audience in different markets across the region. (For more details, read WARC’s report: How consumers in Asia are using games to socialise and ‘normalise’ in the pandemic.)

One example: connectivity is a struggle in Indonesia but there is a huge affinity for gaming. This is driving people towards offline gaming. If the connectivity issue is resolved, online gaming would soar.

U’ren also noted that interactivity in gaming is an advantage that can be tapped into by brands.

For example, when Xbox decided it wanted to be part of the conversation rather than take the traditional approach to branding, it chose to use a range of conversations around motoring trends and auto devices.

That resulted in the overall sentiment becoming twice as powerful and a 20% shift in share of voice. 

Sourced from WARC