The pandemic brought social isolation and, with it, a proximity that benefited the universe of online games, causing the number of new players to grow considerably. According to the 9th edition of the Game Brazil Search (PGB), about 3 out of 4 Brazilians play electronic games.
PGB 2022, developed by the Sioux Group and Go Gamers in partnership with Blend New Research and ESPM, interviewed 13,051 people in the country, in 26 states and in the Federal District, between February 11 and March 7, 2022.
In comparison with last year, the number of players increased by 2.5 percentage points, registering the highest historical mark or 74.5% of the population in Brazil claiming to play games in 2022, according to the survey. Another fact that draws attention has to do with the public’s knowledge of eSports, which has grown to a total of 81.2% of the gamer audience in Brazil — against 64.3% in 2021.
Most (57.9%) of them also claim to have booked more online matchmaking sessions with friends when staying at home.
The engagement of Brazilians with electronic games appears even stronger when it is observed that 76.5% of gamers consider electronic games as the main form of entertainment. This number shows a progressive increase compared to 2020 (57.1%) and 2021 (68%), totaling an increase of 8.5 percentage points in this 9th edition.
“This reinforces the idea that the period of social isolation strengthened the relationship of Brazilians with electronic games, especially through the consumption of media content of games in videos, streams and social networks” says Mauro Berimbau from Go Gamers and professor at ESPM.
The majority (36%) of respondents claimed to have purchased up to three titles in the last year. Among the public that chooses not to pay for games, 40.2% point to high values as the main reason.
Breaking down the public
For Guilherme Camargo, a partner at the Sioux Group and a professor at the ESPM postgraduate course, electronic games have consolidated themselves as one of the main entertainment platforms, having gained “increasingly significant importance in the lives of Brazilians, regardless of gender, age or even same social class”, he observes.
In the ethnic group, players who identify themselves as brown or black prevail as the majority among the players, accounting for 49.4% of the total, followed by players who identify as white (46.6%).
Image: Fredrick Tendong/Unsplash
Regarding the age of the players, people between 20 and 24 years old are the majority among the public in Brazil, with 25.5% of the total. Then comes the group of adolescents aged between 16 and 19 years (17.7%), followed by people between 25 and 29 years old (13.6%).
“Still, what the survey tells us is that there is no age to play electronic games, since the percentage difference between the most varied age groups is balanced. People between 30 and 34 years old, for example, represent 12.9% of the players in Brazil, and those between 35 and 39 years old represent 11.2% of the public”, adds Silva.
When it comes to gender, women dominate the ranking – a fact that has already been verified in previous editions of the survey. In 2022, research shows that they represent 51% of Brazilian players. “This predominance is related to smartphones, the platform with more gamers in Brazil, and with an even greater volume of the female audience (60.4%), but also with the general characteristics of the population of Brazil”, adds Camargo.
Image: Josep Suria/Shutterstock
The supremacy of smartphones
Regarding favorite devices, as highlighted by the expert, smartphones maintain the hegemony among platforms, with 48.3% of the public’s preference. The smartphone already appeared as the favorite platform of Brazilians in previous editions of the study, and now it reaches a growth of 6.7 percentage points.
Computers appear in 2nd place, with 23.3% (sum of desktops and notebooks), followed by home consoles in 3rd, with 20% of the total.
In addition to cell phones being preferred, they are also the devices on which gamers play the most. According to the study, it is on the small screens that the majority of the public plays games every day (33.2%).
On computers, those who play daily represent 15.3% of players in the country, and on consoles, 11.8%. However, longer gaming sessions, such as one to three hours in a row, are more practiced on computers (37.9%) and consoles (34.8%).
On cell phones, this figure is 31.7%, while playing games for up to an hour is the custom for 33.7% of the smartphone audience.
But an interesting fact is that, regardless of the platform, an increasingly common custom among gamers in Brazil is to play online: only 6.7% of respondents do not play online, sharing their experience with other players compared to 36.9% of the gaming public play online daily and 28.7% play three to six days a week.
Finance and purchasing power
Within the profile of players analyzed by the survey are 62.7% of the electronic game audience represented by the middle class (represented by classes B2, C1 and C2), followed by class A (13.5%), by the upper middle class (or the public from class B1, with 12.3%), and by classes D and E (11.6%).
This data is consistent with the average family income of players in Brazil: most (29.1%) have an income between R$2,090.01 and R$4,180, followed by the population that earns up to R$2,090 (27.5%) . The public with income between R$4,180.01 and R$10,450 accounts for 26.7% of the total.
“Computers and gaming consoles have high costs by the standards of most Brazilians. However, smartphones democratize this habit, since they exist in greater quantity than the population of Brazil itself. Another aspect is that Brazilians always find a way to circumvent the high prices, whether by extending the useful life of older generations of consoles or dedicating themselves to a few games”, comments Carlos Silva, partner at GoGamers.
And even though 24.6% of players have stated that they have not spent anything on gaming equipment over the last year, there is still an almost correlated portion (22.6%) that invested at least up to R$499.99 in gamers products, and another considerable public (19.9%) spent between R$500 and R$1,250 on gaming equipment.
PGB 2022 also expanded the mapping in relation to the financial behavior of players in Brazil and shows that 78.6% of this audience has a credit card. The community also invests, opting mostly for savings (36.3%) and fixed income (21.5%), while 28.2% of players do not invest.
Cryptocurrencies are also a source of investment for a good portion of Brazilian gamers (17%), and in this currency Bitcoin prevails with ease among the public (79.2%).
