The survey states that gamers in Muslim nations increase their average game playtime by 40–60%.

Middle Eastern nations, which lead the world in both per-capita usage and playtime, have emerged as the top users of the South Korean game industry.

China and the US, which were ranked first and third in 2021, fell to third and fourth place, respectively, as gamers in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) topped the list for 2022.

The “2022 Survey of Korean Game Users in Overseas Markets” report, which was released by the Korea Creative Content Agency on December 30 of last year, states that gamers in Qatar spent the most last year, with an average monthly expenditure of $76.2 per person on Korean games, followed by those in the UAE, who spent $68.9.

With $60.7 and $55.5, respectively, China and the United States came in third and fourth.

“Qatar and the UAE have high per-capita income, so their customer transactions were relatively higher than other countries,” said the report.

In addition, the top three in Korean game usage time were also gamers from Muslim nations.

Users from Pakistan reported that they play Korean games for an average of four hours (237 minutes) per person on the weekends. Meanwhile, UAE came second with 235 minutes on average and Qatar came third with 229 minutes.

Gamers in Muslim nations claimed that during Ramadan, their average game playtime increased by 40–60%, according to the survey.

“Although interest in games has increased a lot in the Middle East and elsewhere, there are only a few local game companies and most of them are small,” said an official from the Korean game industry.

“Korean game companies are actively developing stories and genres to explore emerging markets such as the Middle East this year,” he added.