By Andi Nuruljihad

There’s no denying the massive negative effect the pandemic has had on businesses and economies with governments and businesses scrambling to stay operating amid the chaos. While the adverse impact of coronavirus is clear and obvious, interestingly, mobile gaming falls into the tiny minority of industries that have actually grown.

People are spending more time on their phones

The elevated amount of time people are spending locked up at home has led to a significant spike in mobile phone usage both with regards to duration and frequency. While mobile apps in all categories have seen notable growth --  resulting in the highest Q1 mobile app spend in history -- the mobile game industry in particular has been boosted by quarantining and government-mandated lockdowns. According to the digital advertiser Jun Group, a poll of their in-app audiences revealed that 77% of players who work from home found themselves playing mobile games several times in a day. While overall app install ad spend on mobile across all markets has seen an increase of 25% from the end February to the start of April, mobile games saw a massive jump of 37% in the same time frame.

China is doubling down on mobile

Flagship mobile gaming titles in China, the world’s largest mobile gaming market, are reporting new record numbers for active users, while other gaming segments, like console and PC, are expected to decline in the long-term. As a result, publishers are doubling down on mobile games, with companies like Tencent enhancing optimization for several of their mobile titles.

Hyper Casual is King

Overall, mobile games have seen a large spike in new installs and revenue, especially in the early weeks of the pandemic. According to AppsFlyer, however, numbers have begun to drop as governments relax coronavirus policy. Core category games install numbers have fallen as much as 20%, though Hyper Casual titles continue to see revenue growth.

Revenue growth correlates with coronavirus outbreak

Positive growth in revenue during this period appears to be tied to the virus outbreak -- as the number of cases increased, so did in-app revenues. Markets where the number of cases have plateaued (mostly Western Europe and East Asia) are beginning to show signs of a negative revenue trend. Revenues are dropping in markets where governments have begun to relax lockdown regulations and people are spending longer time outside.

Fantasy sports benefit from cancellation of live events

One interesting category of games is the fantasy sports genre, which has seen major growth due to the mass cancellation of live sports events. Regular fantasy sports players who typically meet with friends in real-life have also been flocking to digital platforms to get their fix. SuperDraft founder Steve Wang reports an increase of more than 33% daily entries in their Legends series.

Forecasts for the long term

Despite an increase in overall revenue, we are now several months into the pandemic where the economic effects on individuals and households have become quite serious. Experts believe this will eventually lead to a decrease in ad revenue, fewer advertisers, and less ad spend.

As more and more nations succumb to a second wave of coronavirus and the number of new global cases continues to rocket, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that a return to normalcy is still a long way off.