ZEN International

LATAM GAMING
MARKET
Analytics data













ZEN International
LATAM GAMING MARKET

Raphael Carvalheira (CEO & Owner of ZEN International at Sao Paulo/Brazil;
raphael.carvalheira@outlook.com)








ABSTRACT

With this research, we acknowledge and observe the Brazilian Market. Its
special opportunities and conditions, known by the peculiar characteristics of
high taxes and the small amount of big (pro/casual) players in the whole
scenario, may give us lots of challenges. Despite those, Brazilian Market is a
promise of potencial in the brand new digital world. Brazilians are loyal people,
that loves games and sports, specially soccer. People that almost never sleeps
and are a very emotional society.

Keywords: communication; Brazil;; games; videogames; media; electronic sports;
gaming











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About the Countries

We quote na article called Brazilian Gaming Market: An Overview, from M.A.
Vicente M. Mastrocola and M.A. Mauro M. R. Berimbau.

As an emergent country, Brazil is a land of contrasts. The country is the fifth largest in
the world, it has the sixth largest population and it ranks seventh in terms of Internet
usage. Brazilians are heavy Internet users, spending the largest average number of hours
online1, mainly in social network websites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
It may sound curious, but it is a fact: the number of mobile phones in Brazil nowadays is
larger than the size of its population. In the beginning of 2014, more than 270 million
phone lines were in activity in the country and more than 30 million of smartphones are
expected to be working2. This is an important point to highlight because in the last five
years mobile Internet access has become the dominant in Brazil. A recent study from
Nielsen has found that Brazilian mobile users mainly download games, social network
and video applications3.
Acknowledging the prominence of digital culture in todays mediapolis (SILVERSTONE
2007), the large amount of videogames and digital platforms can be considered a
privileged space for communication and marketing researchers of all kinds.
This kind of information helps us understand some features of the potential for a
gaming market. Although we have no extensive research about the subject, there are some
research efforts to better understand the Brazilian gaming market. One research presented
in an important Brazilian videogame fair named "GameWorld" revealed that 60 million
people have at least one videogame console at home. It is almost 33% of Brazil's
population. The
research revealed another curious fact: 48% of the players buy illegal games and only
17% of the sales occur at game shops4.
With this brief overview of the Brazilian gaming ecosystem, we will show deeper
impressions, numbers and perceptions that we hope to help us broaden the discussion of
this subject.


In this research, we also found a research from newzoo, that shows that into social
network games, it is the #1 in western world, with 36% of the internet population and
playing atleast once a week.
It demonstrates its facts, that in December, 2013 (the month of the research), Brazil had
around 48.8M gamers, being the #11 in iPad, #16 in iPhone and #18 in Google Play
smartphone app stores.
_____________________
1 23 hours a week, according to the latest available figures.
2 Source: <http://teleco.com.br/> (last access: May, 2014)
3 Source: <http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us /en/reports-
downloads/2013%20Reports/Mobile-
Consumer-Report-2013.pdf> (last access: May, 2014)
4 Source: <http://jogos.uol.com.br/ultimas-noticias/2012/03/31/segundo-ibope-mais-de-60-milhoes-
debrasileiros-possuem-videogame-em-casa.htm> (last access: May, 2014)
Besides mobile, newzoo graphics tell us that in Brazil, around 61% of all gamers spend
Money on or in games. That means around 33.6M in PC/MAC, 25.2M in MMOs, 14.4M
in Tablets, 25.8M in smartphones, 6.3M in handhelds, 33.7M in TV/Console and 45.2M
ZEN International
in Social/Casual games. And were not even talking about the money, but the people that
spends money in those games. Newzoo also confirms that 58% of Brazil online
population plays mobile games


A curious fact is that 14 out of 16 gamers that are parents in Brazil plays games together
with their kids, frequently.

Cross-screen gaming
In Brazil, we have around 47.1M gamers that uses computer, 34.6M gamers that uses
personal devices, like smartphones and others, 17.8M gamers that uses floating, cloud,
casual and social games in tablets, handhelds and others, 33.7M gamers that have
entertainment devices, consoles in TVs and round 11.1M gamers that uses all four kinds
of screens.


LATAM and the World

In LATAM, the only country that was significant to these researchs was Brazil, so lots of
research of the other countries was either insufficient or lacking data to confirm its
authenticity.

Newzoo confirms that from 2013 to 2016 we shall increase the money flux from 70.4bn,
wich 17.4% (12.3bn) is from mobile market, to 86.1bn, wich 27.8% (23.9bn) is from
mobile market.
In the same analysis, Newzoo confirms that from 2012-2016, global CAGR for mobile
games Market, is around 27.3%, almost four times higher than the industry average
(6.7%).

LATAM Revenue from early 2013 is around 400M, YOY shows growth of around 33%.
Newzoo research shows that from around 84M players, we have 29M payers, and the
average spend is around $1.15 per person, more than Middle East and Africa and almost
the same as Eastern Europe, with almost the same revenue and growth, being higher than
from Asia/Pacific.
LATAM almost does have the same ammount of players that Eastern Europe and it
increases more than ever. The Market already has more payers than Eastern Europe and
besides the numbers are smaller than Middle East & Africa, they spend more money in
games.

A small info from LATAM in mobile games Market shows that in Brazil, Mexico and
Argentina, the same 2 mobile games make the top grossing charts across all mobile
platforms in the top 3 grossing countries, and that the dominant mobile system is Android.

Latin America monetization potencial increases slower than Asia, North America and
Easthern Europe, but has its potential, since it is almost in the same place that Eastern
Europe.
The newest graphic (later 2013) shows that its number already increased to 116M gamers,
with around $3.0Bn, with increasingly 11% YoY, higher than North America and Europe,
Middle-East and Africa together, competing only with Asia-Pacific. World gamers are
around 1,231M gamers, with a total of $70.4Bn and a +6% YoY. LATAN is owner of
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4% of the games Market, NA with 32%, EU-ME-AFRICA with 28% and Asia-Pacific
with 36%

The Global Games Market 2012 - 2016

In the global population, we see that LATAM has around 570M population, with around
250M online population and in active gamers 115M. With numbers higher than
KOR/JP/Oceania, EEu and India, as almost higher than MEA and APAC.

A recent info from Brazil, shows that we have a high ammount of players from 2012 to
2013, around +15%, the time playing games increased in +14%, the payers increased to
+32% and the money increased +32%, the highest increase in the world.

Another information is that in Brazil, from 2011 to 2012, we had +16% of money spent
on MMO games, and that from 19.2M players, 9.1M are payers, wich the #1 Genre of the
game is Realism and the #1 Type of game is Real Time Strategy (RTS). Also, from 2011
to 2012, Brazil had na increase of 20% of social network gamers, 3% higher than EUA,
and 26% payers increase, against 0% increase from EUA.

Among the data, we can see that LATAM is developing in games and electronic sports,
and it is worthy to invest.