Korean games last year showed high popularity in emerging markets like Brazil, India and Saudi Arabia. Shown are visitors in November last year playing games at G-Star 2023 at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center, aka BEXCO, in the port city's Haeundae-gu District. (Yonhap News)

By Park Hye Ri

A report says domestic games last year saw rising popularity in emerging markets such as Brazil, India and Saudi Arabia.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Creative Content Agency on Jan. 8 said this in jointly releasing a survey on the consumption of domestically made games abroad last year.

The research was conducted on 9,200 players of such games over the age of 15 in 18 countries in Asia, North and South America, Oceania, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa.

According to the report, the average playing time of foreign players of the games on weekdays was two hours, 48 minutes and three hours, 39 minutes on weekends.

PC and online games saw the longest usage time in Brazil at three hours, 39 minutes on weekdays and four hours, 39 minutes on weekends.

For mobile game use on weekdays, India was tops at three hours, 21 minutes, followed by Brazil and Saudi Arabia at three hours, 14 minutes each. For weekends, it was India (four hours, three minutes), followed by Indonesia (four hours, two minutes).

The most popular game for all platforms -- PC, online and mobile -- was PUBG: Battlegrounds by Krafton. By country, Pearl Abyss' Black Desert was a hit in Japan, Nexon's KartRider in Taiwan, and Gravity's Ragnarok Online in the U.S., Indonesia, Brazil, the U.K., France and Italy among both PC and online gamers.

Average monthly spending on Korean games for PC, online and mobile was USD 42.47. By country, China was the leader with USD 74.47, followed by the United Arab Emirates with USD 63.28.

The main reasons for gamers abroad playing Korean titles were like "good genre" and "good storyline."

The report also mentioned the Middle East and Central and South America as markets with high growth potential given their consumer populations, stressing the need to raise understanding of a country's culture such as language and religion and preemptively consider related laws and regulations.

hrhr@korea.kr