TESTA, a leader in iGaming performance testing, examined Japan’s iGaming market to assess the overall load time, download speed, game size and compression rate of the country’s top 10 slot providers.
The results are significant to the iGaming industry in Japan where expectations for load time are extremely high and player retention hangs in the balance.
Games Global achieved the fastest load time of 9.4 seconds with its Mega Moolah slot game. But from there the range of load times varied widely. iSoftBet’s Gold Digger slot had the slowest average loading time at 31.06 seconds.
Read on to find out how the 10 providers stacked up for load time—and how download speed, game size and compression rate factored into the comparison.
Background
Who are Japan’s top slot providers?
TESTA researched the Japan iGaming market using SlotCatalog’s list of top slots.
Japan iGaming market analysis
Improvements in mobile and internet access in Japan have greatly enhanced online casino gameplay, leading to an increasing interest from consumers playing for real money.
Given this positive market outlook, more iGaming providers are looking to enter the Japanese market.
Factors affecting slot load times
Understanding the factors that influence game load times is key to optimizing player experience. TESTA’s performance testing reveals four things:
- Network connection and proximity: The quality of the player’s internet connection and their geographical distance from game servers can significantly impact load times.
- CDN assets: The amount and optimization of content delivered from Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) play a crucial role in how quickly game assets load.
- End-user device power: The performance capacity of the player’s device determines how efficiently it can process and render game content.
- Browser processing requirements: Games with complex graphics and scripts require more processing power, impacting load speeds on different browsers.
By employing crowdsourced performance testing, TESTA provides insights into how these factors affect real-world game performance using data gathered from real users on a wide range of devices.
Test case
The test case provided to the testers was to launch all ten games and measure their load speed. The timer started when a game was connected and ended when the game was playable. All browser diagnostics were saved for analysis.
Since not all games are equal, looking at a mix of load speed, game size, and overall load time was also considered in the comparison.
- Game load time – less is better; aim for a waiting time of 5 seconds or playable within 15 seconds to retain players.
- Load speed – larger being better; the rate at which a website or application loads data depends on the local network stability and resources.
- Game size – normally smaller being preferable; the file size of the game that players need to download before playing. The size can vary based on the type, length, and graphics used. There’s a difference between resources and transferred files:
- Resources – uncompressed size of all resources, the size in MB of a website’s content (e.g., 10 MB) including images, videos, and games.
- Transferred – compressed size of all resources, the files downloaded when opening the website (e.g., equal to or less than 10MB) including game assets like graphics, sound effects, background processes, and software updates for optimal gameplay.
Testers in Japan ran the three tests, on all 10 slots, screen recorded them, and then sent the results to TESTA for analysis as reported below.
Results
Games Global wins game load time test
Slots players may or may not know they are loading media-rich software—but if their Netflix video launches in a few seconds—why wouldn’t their slot game?
Industry benchmarks:
- Anything above 10-15 seconds is a very long time to wait in the age of mobile phones and on-demand everything.
- Google famously found that the bounce rate increased by a whopping 32% when a page took 3 seconds to load vs 1 second.
For the Japan slots testing the average load time is the actual waiting time from when the tester clicks on the game icon until the game reaches a playable state. Under 10 seconds is a healthy loading speed.
Game Global’s Mega Moolah takes the top spot with only 9.4 seconds of loading time.
Meanwhile, iSoftBet’s Gold Digger was the slowest of all games tested, with an average loading time of 31.06 seconds. It is worth noting that 2/3rds of the games loaded in 15 seconds or less with a cold cache.
Spinomenal wins game load speed test
Next, we look at the throughput/game load speed. The game load speed indicates the rate at which data is sent from the server and CDN to the player’s browser.
Spinomenal’s Book of Rebirth wins this measurement, clocking in at 2.06 MB/s, while Push Gaming’s Wild Swarm was the slowest at 0.31 MB/S.
As mentioned above, many factors can impact the load speed of a game, including:
- The network connection and proximity to the player.
- The amount of assets stored on a nearby CDN.
- The amount of processing power for complex rendering.
Push Gaming has the smallest average game size and Pragmatic Play has the best compression rate
The average game size refers to the compressed file size that players download before playing. Optimizing game size ensures smooth gameplay on different devices while minimizing the impact on users’ devices.
The TESTA Japan iGaming market analysis’ data shows that the Push Gaming’s Wild Swarm takes just 6.4 MB of transferred (compressed) data to begin whereas the Wazdan’s Sizzling Eggs requires 48.1 MB. Compression, therefore, is another point of comparison, and for Japan slots, Pragmatic Play has the best compression rate at 69%.
Again—as it is the case for load times—the variation for this metric is extreme.
Analysis
The performance data of Japan’s top slot providers uncovers insights that highlight both challenges and growth opportunities in the iGaming industry.
Pain points
The wide variance in load times (9.4 to 31.06 seconds) indicates inconsistency in performance across providers. Slow load times can significantly impact player retention and overall satisfaction.
Areas of opportunity
There’s a substantial opportunity for providers to optimize game size and load speed. Focusing on efficient asset delivery and compression can enhance user experience, especially in markets with varied network speeds and device capabilities.
Key takeaways
- Load time is crucial: Staying under 10 seconds is vital for player engagement.
- Impact of external factors: Providers need to consider network quality, CDN efficiency, and device capabilities in their optimization strategies.
- Value of real-world testing: TESTA’s crowdsourced approach provides actionable insights into real-world performance, essential for providers aiming to excel in diverse markets.
How to get visibility on your iGaming performance
Running a successful slots business in today’s hyper-competitive iGaming industry requires being active in markets all over the globe. The challenge is that each market has its unique preferences and user behaviors.
Market to market variability
From variations in phone quality to network connectivity, no two markets are alike. Game studios and providers cannot be expected to be physically present in each market they serve, which means as they expand they lose visibility on the customer experience.
This is where TESTA Japan iGaming market analysis comes in to help. Using our team of testers in key gaming markets, providers can see real “on the ground” results and generate insights for their own games—and those of competitors.
The TESTA Qrowd
Known as TESTA Qrowd, our community of worldwide iGaming QA testers come from a wide range of backgrounds and skill levels, ensuring that the testing process represents real-world player usage and is not limited to a specific group of users.
The process begins by defining test cases and data outputs with your dedicated Service Delivery Manager. From there, the tests are assigned to our team. Results are posted to the TESTA Platform and summarized in reports. Data can include pictures, video, browser diagnostics, or any other output the client defines.
Conclusion
TESTA is the only crowdtesting platform built specifically by iGamers experts for iGaming experts. See how crowdtesting can help you with Quality Assurance testing and improve compliance, performance, integrations, and many other vital areas of the iGaming landscape.
Click through to learn more about TESTA’s market research and benchmarking solutions for iGaming providers and operators.
About the author
Rebecca CHEN
TESTA Marketing coordinator