New Gaming Study Reveals High Demand for
Multiplayer & Cross-Platform Games
State of Live Gaming in 2021 Report Examines
New Content Impact on Player Engagement and Revenue
Unity (NYSE: U), the world’s leading platform for creating and
operating real-time 3D (RT3D) content, today released two
complementary reports revealing the high demand for multiplayer
games and the importance of post launch content for sustaining
player engagement. Unity Gaming Services’ Cross-Platform Gaming
Study conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Unity, revealed
that over half of all Americans (56%) played multiplayer games in
the past year, with 87% of those gamers playing cross-platform
games. Illustrating the need to keep these players engaged, The
State of Live Gaming in 2021 Report, developed in partnership with
Akamai - the world's most trusted solution to power and protect
digital experiences - details how post-launch content updates drive
and sustain high levels of player engagement, particularly for
mobile game studios who saw an increase as high as 86% in in-app
purchase revenue after a content drop. Together, the reports
emphasize the need for developers to have better post launch game
management, which is part of Unity Gaming Services’ core remit as a
new platform experience that equips developers of all sizes with
the best solutions to quickly create multiplayer games and to
effectively run their live operations.
“The ability to connect friends and communities across different
platforms is increasingly becoming a player expectation and in turn
is emerging as table stakes for developers,” said Felix Thé, Senior
Vice President, Product Management, Operate Solutions, Unity. “With
this massive demand, it’s also important to ensure a pipeline of
content informed by player insights to fuel ongoing engagement and
to drive more growth. This is a huge call to action for the
developer community, as gamers have spoken, and finding scalable
solutions to both make and sustain cross-platform experiences will
be critical to the success of multiplayer games going forward.”
Unity Gaming Services’ Cross-Platform Gaming Study unearths
fresh insights on the popularity of multiplayer games and explores
players’ experiences with cross-platform games. Specifically, it
reveals that there’s a massive demand for gamers to not only play
video games together, but to play together across any device from
console to PC to mobile. There is also a strong appetite for more
games that can deliver this type of frictionless experience. Some
key findings from this study include:
- Multiplayer games have been massively popular over the past
year in the United States - over half (56%) of Americans played
multiplayer games, including 62% men and 50% of women.
- 87% of multiplayer gamers have played cross-platform games in
the past year.
- Mobile is a very important platform for cross-platform gamers -
among those who play cross-platform games, almost half (44%) play
on both mobile and console and nearly a third (29%) play on mobile
only.
- 43% of cross-platform gamers express that they want more
cross-platform game options.
The State of Live Gaming in 2021 Report, developed in
partnership with Akamai, reveals important growth strategies for
studios when determining the impact of new content on player
engagement, and highlights solutions to help drive continued
success post-launch. Ensuring a pipeline of ongoing content can
often be a resource strain for developers, but the benefits have
shown to be massive for scaling and sustaining player engagement.
Some key findings from the report include:
- Sessions per daily active users increased by almost 8% for the
top end of mobile games in the week following a new content
release.
- When looking at the timing one week before and after a content
drop, mobile game studios can see an increase as high as 86% in
in-app purchase revenue and 75% in average revenue per daily active
users.
- Mobile game developers need to be mindful of file size as that
can have an impact on app install rates - if the app size balloons
upwards of 500 MB, install rates begin to drop significantly.
- Gathering valuable feedback from players is crucial for studios
to build a successful post-launch content pipeline.
“Players can’t play what they don’t have,” said Jon Alexander,
Vice President, Product Management, Akamai. “While your audience
may rely on the app stores of the world’s largest smartphone
manufacturers to download your game, that initial download will
only get them so far. Updates, patches, additional level packs,
match information and more also need to be sent to your audience on
an ongoing basis to keep them engaged. For the best player
experience, a scalable, highly distributed content delivery network
(CDN) partner can give you the reach that you, and your players,
need to get the most out of your game.”
In order to meet the demands of players and to deliver the right
content at the right time, studios need the best tools to help them
achieve their goals. Last month, Unity launched Unity Gaming
Services, an improved and streamlined platform to equip developers
of all sizes with the solutions they need to rapidly create
cross-platform multiplayer experiences, to handle all scenarios for
running a live game and to monitor their performance in a single
connected interface.
To learn more about Unity Gaming Services, visit Unity Gaming
Services and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
For a free copy of the Cross-Platform Gaming Study, please visit
https://create.unity.com/cross-platform-gaming-report-2021.
For a free copy of The State of Live Gaming in 2021 Report,
please visit
https://create.unity3d.com/state-of-live-gaming-in-2021.
Cross-Platform Gaming Study Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States by The
Harris Poll on behalf of Unity Technologies from June 21-23, 2021
among 2,076 adults ages 18+, among whom 1,167 are multiplayer
gamers (i.e., have played multiplayer games in the past year), and
1,010 are cross-platform gamers (i.e., have played cross-platform
videos games in the past year). This online survey is not based on
a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical
sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology,
including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please
contact Shirley Chu (Shirley.Chu@unity3d.com) or Ryan Wallace
(Ryan.Wallace@unity3d.com).
The State of Live Gaming Report 2021 Data Source
The data in this report is anonymized and sourced globally from
mobile games using Unity’s monetization platform as well as games
made with Unity for PC, macOS, Android, and iOS. Anonymized and
aggregated data from Unity’s deltaDNA is also included in the
report to support monetization metrics with engagement data. Data
from the top 1,000 games by advertising revenue with Unity, on both
iOS and Android, provided us with over 19,000 content releases.
The timeframe for the data ranges from the beginning of 2020 and
includes data as recent as July 2021. We used publicly available
app update data to identify days in which each app received a
version update. We filtered the data to only include patches which
had a different version description text from the previous version
in order to filter out patches that were not delivering new content
or feature updates.
We take developer data privacy very seriously and have omitted
information from this report that would individually identify any
single game, developer or player.
About The Harris Poll
The Harris Poll is one of the longest running surveys in the
U.S. tracking public opinion, motivations and social sentiment
since 1963 that is now part of Harris Insights & Analytics, a
global consulting and market research firm that delivers social
intelligence for transformational times. We work with clients in
three primary areas; building twenty-first-century corporate
reputation, crafting brand strategy and performance tracking, and
earning organic media through public relations research. Our
mission is to provide insights and advisory to help leaders make
the best decisions possible. To learn more, please visit
www.theharrispoll.com.
About Akamai
Akamai powers and protects life online. The most innovative
companies worldwide choose Akamai to secure and deliver their
digital experiences - helping billions of people live, work, and
play every day. With the world's largest and most trusted edge
platform, Akamai keeps apps, code, and experiences closer to users
- and threats farther away. Learn more about Akamai's security,
content delivery, and edge compute products and services at
www.akamai.com, blogs.akamai.com, or follow Akamai Technologies on
Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Unity
Unity (NYSE: U) is the world’s leading platform for creating and
operating real-time 3D (RT3D) content. Creators, ranging from game
developers to artists, architects, automotive designers,
filmmakers, and others, use Unity to make their imaginations come
to life. Unity’s platform provides a comprehensive set of software
solutions to create, run and monetize interactive, real-time 2D and
3D content for mobile phones, tablets, PCs, consoles, and augmented
and virtual reality devices. The company’s 1,800+ person research
and development team keeps Unity at the forefront of development by
working alongside partners to ensure optimized support for the
latest releases and platforms. Apps developed by Unity creators
were downloaded more than five billion times per month in 2020. For
more information, please visit www.unity.com.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211116005283/en/
Shirley Chu Unity Communications shirley.chu@unity3d.com
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