In Latin America, there are approximately 300 million gamers who enjoy gaming almost daily. This captivating ecosystem provides them with interaction and becomes their main choice of entertainment, displacing other activities and social platforms. Once users enter the game world, they stay in it. Gaming is not just a gaming platform, but a whole digital ecosystem that maintains player loyalty. For brands, it represents fertile ground: it is safe for the brand, it has a captive and receptive audience that values the support of brands, especially in eSports, as long as they understand the codes of the game and deliver messages that are useful, entertaining, disruptive and respectful of the game environment.
The consumption of digital content has led to a significant growth in the number of users in the region who invest their leisure time in online games or gaming. Latin America has become one of the fastest growing regions in the industry, with countries like Mexico, Brazil and Chile leading the market in South America. Only Mexico and Brazil generate more than US$4,000 million a year in the gaming industry.
From Wavemaker, using the tool Audience Origin, we analyze the gaming habits of Latin Americans, from the most popular titles to the favorite platforms and consoles. We observed differences in gambling behavior between countries, as well as between singles, couples and parents.
Globally, parents with young children are reaching out to young singles and childless couples, and watching games streamed live on Twitch is a prominent activity. In our region, we found high player rates across all demographic groups. In Argentina, there is not a big difference in gambling behavior between single people, couples without children and parents with older children. In Colombia, childless couples outnumber single gamers, and parents with older children also have high gaming participation. In Chile, the rate of single players is higher, followed by couples without children, and as in Mexico, there is a higher consumption of video game broadcasts on Twitch, especially among single people.
These four countries serve as a reference to highlight gaming as an opportunity to connect with the audience. Gaming is not only a business opportunity but also has a receptive audience that includes people of all ages as we all grew up gaming. So, what leads Latin Americans to dedicate more and more time to online gambling? In addition to several factors, this is due to the redistribution of free time activities and the increase in internet connections and mobile devices. Many people have been forced to stay at home due to the pandemic and have upgraded their internet connections to carry out a wide variety of online activities. Besides, Internet access in the region has increased considerably, with more than 80% of the population connected through mobile devices.
The mobile has become the preferred device to play in the region, above the computer and game consoles. The possibility of accessing a wide variety of online games for free through mobile devices has contributed significantly to the momentum of gaming in Latin America.
The spread of gaming in the region is not limited to specific segments of the population, such as children or adolescents. Nowadays, It is estimated that 38% of gamers are over 35 years old, the gender distribution is almost equal and 44% play more than one hour a day. Gaming has become a transversal activity that encompasses all ages, socioeconomic levels, geographic regions, and interests and behaviors. This gives brands the opportunity to take advantage of their potential and make their products and services known to an audience that is connected, relevant, receptive and open to the messages of the brands in their environment. 37% of users have made purchases online and 82% prefer apps with ads over paid apps.
Brands can be sure that the gaming ecosystem is safe for them, since there are multiple verification tools and options to provide safe, correct and trustworthy environments for advertisers. The opportunity is served to take advantage of this situation and access an environment with diverse users, open and receptive to brand messages in digital environments.. Brands should not be left out of the game, but join in a disruptive and non-disruptive way, taking advantage of the different attractive formats available. Everyone is playing, and the brands should be there too!
Héctor Castaneda is Head of Digital Wavemaker Colombia.
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by Hector Castaneda
