The unprecedented Covid-19 outbreak has changed people’s behaviours in countless ways with cultures, industries and individuals forced into strange and unusual patterns. Here at Google Play, we’ve conducted an extensive player survey and analysed our own data to understand how the outbreak is changing the growth and behaviours of gaming populations.

前所未有的Covid-19爆发已经以无数种方式改变了人们的行为，因为文化，行业和个人被迫以奇怪和不同寻常的方式生活。 在Google Play，我们进行了一项广泛的玩家调查，并分析了我们自己的数据，以了解疫情如何改变游戏人群的增长和行为。

Mobile games are becoming more popular as users turn to their phones for entertainment and social activities during isolation, giving developers the opportunity to help their players through the pandemic. Supplemented by insights drawn from professional studios and our internal data from the Play Store, this article is intended to give confidence by highlighting several trends that developers can use to operate successfully during this difficult time.

随着用户在隔离期间转向手机进行娱乐和社交活动，手机游戏变得越来越流行，这为开发人员提供了帮助其玩家渡过大流行的机会。 补充来自专业工作室的见解和来自Play商店的内部数据，本文旨在通过强调开发人员可以在此困难时期成功使用的几种趋势来增强信心。

Check out the Full Report on our player survey for additional insights and regional data.

在我们的玩家调查中查看完整报告 ，以获取其他见解和区域数据。

方法： (Methodology:)

Before diving into the results, we should briefly turn to the methodology behind our player survey. The demographic splits are shown in the images below, alongside how these players report being impacted by the lockdown.

在深入研究结果之前，我们应简要介绍玩家调查背后的方法。 下图显示了人口统计拆分，以及这些玩家报告的受锁定影响的方式。

The questions focused on how players were playing and spending money on mobile games during quarantine, compared to how they behaved before lockdown and how they expect to behave afterwards.

问题集中在玩家在隔离期间如何玩游戏以及在手机游戏上花钱，与他们在锁定之前的表现以及之后的预期表现相比。

Engagement with games is increasing both in the number of players and level of engagement per player — but motivations remain largely the same.

与游戏的互动在玩家数量和每位玩家参与度上都在增加，但动机基本保持不变。

First we’ll look at player motivations, and how players are engaging with games during the pandemic. The key takeaway from the survey is that on average across all demographics, around 70% of gamers report they are spending more time playing mobile games and only a tiny fraction report they are playing less. In addition, 65% of respondents said their gaming sessions were longer than before. Critically, between 20–60% of respondents (depending on region) said they expected to continue with their increased playtime beyond the pandemic. These reports are confirmed by Google’s data which has seen (on average) a 10% increase in engagement in mobile games with even higher figures (20–30%) in genres that reward higher levels of player commitment or skill such as Action, Adventure or Simulation games. Developers have also mentioned this trend, with players suddenly requesting more playable content as they burn through what is available faster.

首先，我们将研究玩家的动机以及大流行期间玩家如何参与游戏。 该调查的主要结论是，在所有人群中，平均而言，大约70％的游戏玩家表示他们花更多的时间在玩手机游戏上，只有一小部分人报告他们的游戏时间更少。 此外，有65％的受访者表示他们的游戏时间比以前更长。 至关重要的是，有20％至60％的受访者(取决于地区)表示，他们希望继续增加流行时间以外的娱乐时间。 这些报告已得到Google的数据的确认，这些数据平均(平均)使手游的参与度提高了10％，而奖励更高级别的玩家投入或技能(例如动作，冒险或模拟游戏。 开发人员还提到了这种趋势，玩家在快速浏览可用内容时会突然要求提供更多可播放内容。

Interestingly, despite these changes the motivations behind gaming have not changed significantly. When asked to pick their motivations from a list of options including “stress relief” and “connect with friends/family”, no motivation deviated by more than 3% from pre-pandemic levels. This suggests that new behaviour patterns emerging are purely down to the change in circumstance (rather than, for example, a new and fundamentally different demographic), and the individuals involved are motivated and interested in familiar ways. A more significant motivational change relates to people’s schedules, with players reporting increasing similarity between weekdays and weekends and fewer play sessions initiated as a result of commutes. The evidence supports adjusting promotional activities and notifications to reach people at distributed times throughout the week rather than key windows on weekends.

有趣的是，尽管进行了这些更改，但游戏背后的动机并未发生显着变化。 当被要求从包括“缓解压力”和“与朋友/家人的联系”等选项中选择他们的动机时，没有比大流行前水平高出3％的动机。 这表明出现的新的行为模式完全取决于情况的变化(而不是例如新的，根本不同的人口统计学特征)，并且所涉及的个人都对熟悉的方式具有积极性和兴趣。 更大的动机变化与人们的日程安排有关，玩家报告工作日和周末之间的相似度越来越高，通勤导致的比赛次数减少。 证据支持调整促销活动和通知，以便在整个星期的分散时间(而不是在周末的关键时段)覆盖人们。

Players are drawn to games with strong social features and are returning to old favorites.

玩家被具有强大社交功能的游戏所吸引，并且正在恢复旧的收藏夹。

Given the trends above, it’s hardly surprising that we’re also seeing lots of gamers buying new games — 45% on average with higher peaks among groups such as 25–34 year olds. Another insight is supported by both the player responses and what we’ve heard from developers — that many users are returning to old favourites and re-downloading them. Presumably this is due to users previously churning from the game due to a change in their availability who now find themselves with more free time and fond memories, with 49% reporting ‘Nostalgia’ as the primary reason to return — followed closely by ‘new updates’ at 36%. Now seems like a good time to experiment with reigniting your older communities and re-engaging lapsed users, especially if you have new content they may not have seen before.

考虑到上述趋势，我们也看到很多玩家购买新游戏也就不足为奇了，平均水平为45％，在25-34岁的人群中达到更高的峰值。 玩家的回应以及我们从开发人员那里得到的信息都支持另一种见解-许多用户正在返回旧的收藏夹并重新下载它们。 大概这是由于用户由于可用性的改变而从游戏中撤出，现在他们发现自己有更多的空闲时间和美好的回忆，其中49％的用户表示“怀旧”是回归的主要原因，紧随其后的是“新更新”占36％。 现在似乎是尝试重新点燃旧社区并重新吸引流失用户的好时机，尤其是如果您拥有他们以前从未见过的新内容时。

More generally, users report they are playing games with strong social features, easy accessibility and high skill caps during this time of isolation, in particular MMORPG, MOBA and Battle Royale gameplay. In contrast (since these genres are often dominated by a few key titles) the largest increases in reported downloads are visible in the Action, Arcade and Puzzle genres. It seems probable that the desire to combat isolation by playing with friends and competing/cooperating seems to be at least matched by the desire to combat boredom with an easily-accessible, quick-to-access more casual game. It is also interesting to note that many developers have reported that interest in social features has driven population growth particularly among the non-traditional demographics of women and older players.

更普遍的是，用户报告他们在隔离期间正在玩具有强大社交功能，易于访问和高技能的游戏，尤其是MMORPG，MOBA和Battle Royale游戏。 相比之下(由于这些类型通常由一些关键标题主导)，在动作，街机和解谜类型中，报告下载量的增长最大。 通过与朋友一起玩和竞争/合作来对抗孤独的愿望似乎至少与通过易于访问，易于访问的休闲游戏来对抗无聊的愿望相匹配。 有趣的是，许多开发商报告说，人们对社交功能的兴趣推动了人口增长，尤其是在女性和年长玩家的非传统人群中。

Engagement in social activities across all regions is increasing, but at different rates. Within each region, different social activities are growing at the same rate.

所有地区对社会活动的参与都在增加，但速度不同。 在每个区域内，不同的社会活动以相同的速度增长。

In addition to finding our respondents were motivated to buy a game based on social features, we also investigated how their engagement with those features had changed within the game. We found a universal trend towards making more use of social features, though this was far more pronounced in some areas (e.g. Brazil — 60% increase) than others (e.g. JP — 12% increase). The types of social activity we see these increases in is also very consistent, with different types of social interaction all showing a similar increase in each region. We tracked 10 different kinds of social features and each type of interaction rose by a roughly similar amount, indicating there is no ‘best’ social feature to focus on.

除了发现受访者有动机购买基于社交功能的游戏外，我们还调查了他们对这些功能的参与度在游戏中的变化。 我们发现了一种普遍使用社交功能的普遍趋势，尽管在某些地区(例如，巴西-增长60％)比其他地区(例如JP-增长12％)要明显得多。 我们看到这些增加的社交活动的类型也非常一致，不同类型的社交互动在每个区域都显示出相似的增长。 我们跟踪了10种不同的社交功能，每种类型的互动增长了大致相似的数量，表明没有“最佳”社交功能需要关注。

This gives developers a unique opportunity to strengthen their communities during lockdown. Offering more opportunities and higher rewards for social engagement during a period where people are seeking a break from isolation will not only help the community by providing more communal activity during what is for many a lonely time — it will also help grow connections within the community and sub-groups which will drive retention and lifespan of individual players.

这为开发人员提供了在锁定期间增强其社区的独特机会。 在人们寻求摆脱孤立的时期内，为社会参与提供更多机会和更高的回报，不仅可以通过在许多孤独的时间内提供更多的社区活动来帮助社区，还可以帮助建立社区内部的联系并分组，这将提高单个玩家的保留率和寿命。

New Mobile Gamers are likely to continue playing and appear in all genres, but are drawn to Puzzle games and have similar motivations to other players.

新手游玩家很可能会继续玩并出现在所有类型的游戏中，但它们被益智游戏所吸引，并且与其他玩家具有相似的动机。

While the analysis of player motivations above concluded that there is very little difference between the motivations of new players and pre-covid players, it is still useful to investigate this section of the community more closely as they provide a fantastic opportunity for UA.

尽管以上对玩家动机的分析得出的结论是，新玩家和熟习过的玩家之间的动机差异不大，但更深入地调查社区的这一部分仍然有用，因为它们为UA提供了绝佳的机会。

• Unsurprisingly they tend to be ‘Light’ (< 3 hours/week) gamers. These are people who are beginning to play mobile games, and are unlikely to dive into a heavy play schedule.
  毫不奇怪，他们往往是“轻量级”(每周少于3个小时)的游戏玩家。 这些都是开始玩手机游戏的人，不太可能陷入沉重的游戏时间表。
• In general the most played genre among new players is the ‘Puzzle’ genre.
  通常，新玩家中最常玩的类型是“拼图”类型。
• While their motivations are very similar to other players, they do have markedly less interest in ‘completing the game’. This makes sense as the motivation to ‘complete a game’ is often tied to a wider appreciation of the hobby (e.g. knowing there are other games you want to play next or wanting to see if you can beat it more quickly than average) and means developers seeking to attract these players should focus less on helping them to the end and more on onboarding, general UE and social features.
  尽管他们的动机与其他玩家非常相似，但他们对“完成游戏”的兴趣却明显不足。 这是有道理的，因为“完成游戏”的动机通常与对业余爱好的更广泛的欣赏联系在一起(例如，知道接下来还有其他游戏要玩，或者想知道是否可以比平均水平更快地击败它)，并且意味着寻求吸引这些玩家的开发人员应减少对最终帮助的关注，而应更多地关注入门，一般UE和社交功能。
• Critically many new lockdown gamers intend to continue with their gaming habits and are quickly becoming enmeshed in the wider gaming ecosystem. Developers are advised to avoid considering them as transient or less committed.
  至关重要的是，许多新的锁定游戏玩家打算继续他们的游戏习惯，并Swift陷入更广阔的游戏生态系统中。 建议开发人员避免将它们视为短暂的或不太投入的。
• 40% said it was ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ likely they would continue these patterns.
  40％的人表示，他们将继续这种模式是“极端”或“非常”可能。
• Most of the rest were uncertain — only 16% said it was in any way likely that they would slow down or stop.
  其余大多数人不确定—只有16％的人表示他们有任何可能放缓或停止的感觉。
• 33% already watch gaming content
  33％的人已经看过游戏内容
• 33% play socially with family and friends
  33％的人与家人和朋友一起社交
• 25% engage with social functions such as character customization.
  25％的人参与社交功能，例如角色定制。

Google’s data supports these insights. While we found a noticeable increase in new installs growth across the board during the first months of the lockdown, the install growth rate has returned to pre-covid levels. However, time spent in games continues to be higher (+10%) than in pre-covid months, supporting the insights that players who installed games because of the changed circumstances, have continued playing.

Google的数据支持了这些见解。 虽然我们发现在锁定的前几个月中，新安装量的增长显着增加，但安装量的增长率已恢复到先前的水平。 但是，花在游戏上的时间仍比上古游戏前几个月高(+ 10％)，这支持了由于环境变化而安装游戏的玩家继续玩游戏的见解。

The lockdown months saw both the number of buyers and buyers monthly spend increase in the immediate post-lockdown weeks 19% on average. ‘Quick Progression’ IAPs are becoming less popular as more meaningful investment in the game economy rises.

在锁定期后的几个月中，购买者数量和购买者每月的支出在锁定后即刻平均增加了19％。 随着对游戏经济的更有意义的投资的增加，“快速进步”的IAP越来越不受欢迎。

Most respondents said they did not intend to spend more on gaming during lockdown, however far more said they would increase than decrease. This is good news for gaming companies and is supported by our data on what revenue players have already generated during lockdown:

大多数受访者表示，他们不打算在锁定期间在游戏上花费更多，但更多的人表示会增加而不是减少。 对于游戏公司而言，这是个好消息，并得到我们有关锁定期间已经产生的收入的数据的支持：

• 33% have bought IAPs
  33％的人购买了IAP
• 25% have bought premium games
  25％的人购买了高级游戏
• 50% have watched rewarded ads
  50％的人观看了奖励性广告
• 33% intend to continue behaving in the same manner
  33％的人打算继续以同样的方式行事

One very interesting revelation concerns which IAPs players are choosing to buy. IAPs that are designed to directly speed up the experience (such as repeat attempts, extra moves or account upgrades that remove ads) are becoming less popular — possibly due to users having more time on their hands and not looking for a quick session during their commute or lunch break. Instead, IAPs that represent a more purposeful investment in the ecosystem (such as rare items or hard currency) are becoming increasingly popular. This implies that players are looking for deeper and more meaningful game experiences rather than quick or convenient ones.

一个非常有趣的启示涉及哪些 IAP参与者正在选择购买。 旨在直接加速体验的IAP(例如重复尝试，多余的举动或删除广告的帐户升级)变得不那么受欢迎了-可能是由于用户有更多时间在上下班途中而不是寻找快速会话或午休时间。 取而代之的是，代表对生态系统进行更有目的的投资(例如稀有物品或硬通货)的IAP越来越受欢迎。 这意味着玩家正在寻找更深刻，更有意义的游戏体验，而不是快速或便捷的体验。

Making a post-lockdown habit of lockdown behavior

在锁定后养成锁定行为的习惯

As mentioned above, many players have indicated an intention to maintain these new behaviors, which is a benefit all around. Studios maintain higher engagement while players maintain a new and exciting hobby that has demonstrably helped them through a stressful period.

如上所述，许多参与者已经表示有意维持这些新行为，这对所有人都是有益的。 制片厂保持较高的参与度，而播放器则保持新的令人兴奋的爱好，这显然帮助他们度过了紧张的时期。

One important question is therefore what steps a studio can take to help sustain these habits across changes caused by the ease of lockdown. To accomplish this, we look at the 4 elements of a habitual behavior (the initial desire, the effective trigger, the ease of operation and the reward) and ask ourselves how we expect them to be affected by the end of lockdown and what studios can do to ensure the habitual behavior continues. The ideas below are intended as examples to illustrate the kind of analysis that would be useful in the specific circumstances of a given studio. The critical thing is to be anticipating these problems before they arise!

因此，一个重要的问题是工作室可以采取哪些步骤来在因锁定容易造成的变化中保持这些习惯。 为了实现这一目标，我们研究了一种习惯行为的四个要素(最初的欲望，有效触发，操作的便利性和报酬)，并问自己我们如何期望锁定期结束对他们的影响以及工作室可以做什么？确保习惯性行为继续进行。 下面的想法仅用作示例，以说明在给定工作室的特定情况下有用的分析类型。 关键是要在这些问题出现之前预见它们！

Desire or motivation

欲望或动力

• During lockdown, people suffered from boredom and isolation and were motivated to play games (especially games with social features) for this reason.
  在锁定期间，人们遭受无聊和孤立的困扰，因此被激励去玩游戏(尤其是具有社交功能的游戏)。
• This presents an opportunity to build ongoing community activities and connectivity (such as community contests or discussions) during lockdown, embedding players in the community long-term.
  这提供了在锁定期间建立正在进行的社区活动和连通性(例如社区竞赛或讨论)的机会，从而将参与者长期嵌入社区中。
• Game content and messaging may also need to be adjusted to be more exciting and attractive, since post-lockdown players will once again have more activities competing for their free time.
  游戏内容和消息传递也可能需要进行调整，以使其更加令人兴奋和有吸引力，因为锁定后的玩家将再次有更多的活动在争夺空闲时间。

Trigger

触发

• During lockdown, people have moved away from traditional ‘commuter’ and ‘weekend’, moving gaming towards ad-hoc sessions during lockdown which could be easily prompted by nudges throughout the day.
  在锁定期间，人们已经脱离了传统的“通勤”和“周末”，在锁定期间将游戏转向了临时会议，这很容易在一天中被轻推。
• The immediate assumption is therefore that, post-lockdown, studios should return to traditional models, nudging players during traditional peak times.
  因此，直接的假设是，在锁定之后，工作室应该返回传统模式，在传统高峰时段轻推玩家。
• A degree of caution is necessary here — keep in mind players do not enjoy too many notifications and it’s likely they will be receiving a lot of new communications once lockdown is over. Carefully analyse and moderate the responses you get to notifications.
  在此必须采取一定的谨慎态度-请记住，玩家不会收到太多通知，一旦锁定结束，他们很可能会收到很多新的通讯信息。 仔细分析和审核您对通知的响应。

Ease

缓解

• During lockdown, ease seems to have been a less critical factor. With more time on their hands, players have been engaging with more challenging, time-consuming games and appear willing to spend time learning the ropes and mastering strategy.
  在锁定期间，放宽似乎并不是那么关键的因素。 随着时间的流逝，玩家一直在从事更具挑战性，耗时的游戏，并且似乎愿意花时间学习绳索和掌握策略。
• This free time may quickly disappear post-lockdown. Ensuring ease of access and engagement (both for retained players and user acquisition) will once again be critically important.
  空闲时间可能会在锁定后Swift消失。 确保访问和参与的便利性(对于保留的玩家和用户获取)都将再次变得至关重要。
• Studios may want to look at their navigation and onboarding experiences, particularly in time-intensive genres, and ensure they are suitable for an audience with less free time.
  电影制片厂可能想看看他们的导航和入门经验，尤其是时间密集型影片，并确保它们适合空闲时间较少的观众。

Reward

奖励

• As noted above, players have received a great deal during lockdown outside of the game ecosystem in terms of social connection and entertainment during a protracted isolation. When lockdown ends and people are able to live their normal, social lives again, they may no longer be as reliant on gaming to receive these ‘rewards’.
  如上所述，就长期隔离而言，在社交生态系统和娱乐方面，玩家在游戏生态系统外部的锁定期间已收到大量收益。 当封锁结束并且人们能够再次过上正常的社交生活时，他们可能不再那么依赖游戏来获得这些“奖励”。
• As such studios may want to plan increasing the free rewards (currency, experience, items) available while lockdown ends, ensuring users feel sufficiently rewarded for the time they are able to invest.
  由于这样的工作室可能希望计划在锁定期结束时增加可用的免费奖励(货币，体验，物品)，以确保用户在能够投资的时间内获得足够的回报。
• If community activity is critical to a studio, they may also want to increase rewards specifically for those activities. Temporarily providing double rewards for a co-op experience when lockdown ends could help players transition their habit from lockdown to post-lockdown, and hopefully retain them long-term.
  如果社区活动对工作室至关重要，他们可能还想专门为那些活动增加奖励。 锁定结束时暂时为合作社体验提供双倍奖励，可以帮助玩家从锁定状态转变为锁定后状态，并希望长期保持这种状态。

最后的话 (Final word)

As we continue through a tumultuous time it is incredibly reassuring to see the games industry remaining relatively stable. People are turning to games and the studios behind them as an antidote to the isolation and boredom of quarantine. Games have been bringing people together since the dawn of civilization, and in their response to the current crisis developers have a unique opportunity to unite people at a time when connections and community spirit are of critical importance.

随着我们经历一个动荡的时期，令人难以置信的是，游戏产业保持相对稳定。 人们将目光投向了游戏及其背后的工作室，以此来隔离隔离和无聊。 自文明诞生以来，游戏就一直将人们召集在一起，在应对当前危机的过程中，开发人员有一个独特的机会，可以在人们的联系和社区精神至关重要的时候团结人们。

Additional Resources

其他资源

Read the full report for more details and insights into our player survey.

阅读完整的报告 ，了解更多详细信息和对我们玩家调查的见解。

What do you think?

你怎么看？

Do you have thoughts on TOPIC? Let us know in the comments below or tweet using #AskPlayDev and we’ll reply from @GooglePlayDev, where we regularly share news and tips on how to be successful on Google Play.

您对主题有想法吗？ 在下面的评论中让我们知道，或使用#AskPlayDev进行鸣叫，我们将通过@GooglePlayDev进行回复，我们在其中定期分享有关如何在Google Play上取得成功的新闻和提示。