153 Million Dollars Revenue from Digital Games in Iran
A recent national survey in Iran shows that the country’s digital games’ revenue in 2015 was 153 million dollars. 95٪ of this revenue is for non-Iranian games.
Iran’s digital gaming scene is prospering day by day and it has become a focus point for international and local game publishers. High smartphone penetration and access to high-speed internet connection has helped the gaming industry to bloom in Iran in the recent years. Just like the other parts of the world, digital gaming has become a from-runner in the entertainment industry.
According to a report by Digital Gamers Research Center (DIREC) on the digital games consumption in Iran, this industry has made 153 million dollars revenue in 2015. The survey which was conducted on 15 thousand Iranians indicates that 67% of the gamers who pay for digital games are male and 33% are female. Only 5% of Iran’s games market is allocated to Iranian games and the rest belongs to foreign games.
In the past years due to copyright infringements in Iran, publishers haven’t been able to make a significant amount of revenue off the games sold in the country, especially on video games consoles. Unlike the previous generation of gaming consoles, Playstation 4 and Xbox One haven’t been cracked by hackers and this has led to a growth in the number of original games sold in Iran. The games are usually smuggled into the country via the neighboring countries and are sometimes sold with a much higher price depending on the scarcity of the game.
But the situation has been much different for mobile games. Local Android application markets have partnered up with international publishers to allow users to make payments via local debit cards. Many Iranian games have also been able to sell profitable games in the recent years. According to this report 65% of the digital games’ revenue in Iran belong to mobile devices and 94% of the games are being played on Android device, 5% on iOS and only 1% on Windows Phone.
Also the top 5 favorite mobile brands in Iran for gaming are Samsung, Huawei, Sony, Apple and LG respectively according to this survey.