Video games are among the most popular hobbies of Iranians. [2]
According to the country's official statistics in 2022, Iran has 34 million gamers. In this year, the total population of the country was 84 million people. Also, 41% of Iranian gamers are female, and Alborz province has the most gamers while Qom province has the least gamers. Approximately 58% of gamers play online and 56% of them play daily. 96% of Iranian gamers play with mobile phones, 88% with home consoles, 59% with personal computers, 48% with laptops, 14% with tablets and 13% with handheld consoles. Also, 33% of Iranian gamers play on multiple platforms. [3]
Economic sanctions against Iran have hampered Iranian video game developers and their participation in international trade. The sanctions prevent their licensing of major game engines. Among consumers, sanctions block use of major digital stores and limit access to credit cards. [4]
There were about 23 million video game players in the country as of 2015. [5] By 2021 this had increased to 32 million. [6]
The average age of an Iranian gamer is 25. [7]
The first Iranian game console which was named as "Video Master" was released into market in 1976. [8] Its production factory was situated in Isfahan. [8] The next Iranian company in this field was called as "General Electronic kit", situated in Tehran, which in 1978 was producing a game console named as "TV Game". [8]
Hanfa, was the first Iranian game studio, which was established in mid-90s. [8] "Tank Hunter" was the name of its first game produced, and "Ali Baba" was the second one. [8] The first 3D video game of Iran was named as "Payan-e Masumiat" and was produced by the Iranian game studio "Puya Arts". [8] [9]
During the mid-2000s, Iran's domestic gaming industry thrived, with companies such as Darinoos localizing pirated international PC games, and domestic studios like "Puya Arts" and "Dead Mage" drawing inspiration from Iranian history to create content, capitalizing on their unique approach to attract a local following. [10]
According to WIRED, Iran has used digital games like "Safire Eshgh" and "Commander of the Resistance: Amerli Battle" as part of their propaganda machine to promote state ideology. [11] This was rejected by Tasnim News Agency, a news organization affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. [12]
Cosplay and the economy related to the sale of clothing of game characters in Iran, although rejected by the government, are significant. The cosplay of game characters is usually done on TikTok or Instagram by Iranian users. Characters like Elastigirl, Spiderman, Supergirl and Ellie have been the most popular of the 2010s and 2020s. [13]
The first Iranian magazine specialised in gaming, titled as "Bazi-e Rayaneh" was established in 2001, and was covering the news surrounding video games. [8]
Donya ye Bazi (دنیای بازی), also known as DBazi or Donya e Baz, was an Iranian Persian-language computer games magazine. [14] [15] [16] Founded by editor-in-chief Babak Namazian in September 2005, [17] the magazine was devoted to supporting Iranian game developers, reviewing PC and console games and covering game industry news.
The magazine's website, dbazi.com, was established in 2009, making it the first Iranian gaming news website. [18]
Donya ye Bazi ceased publication after September 2014. [19]
Iranian rock refers to rock music produced by Iranian artists. Rock music has been popular in Iran since 1960s, with the emergence of singers such as Kourosh Yaghmaei, Farhad Mehrad, Fereydoon Foroughi and Habib Mohebian, but was largely forgotten after the Iranian Revolution. Like most rock styles, electric guitar and bass guitar and drums are the main instruments in this type of music. In some groups, keyboard and piano are very important.
Rana Azadivar is an Iranian actress. She is best known for her role as Faezeh in The Lizard (2004). Azadivar gained wide recognition after portraying the leading role of Samira in the widely streamed drama series Mortal Wound (2021).
AmirHossein Maghsoudloo, known professionally as Amir Tataloo, is an Iranian singer, rapper, songwriter. He is one of Iran’s most famous and controversial artists including his full body tattoo and his frequents open dialogue toward politics and social aspects of Iranian young generations. He is part of the first generation of the Iranian underground hip hop scene and also one of the first R&B singers in Persian. He is currently in Iran and under arrest for criticizing the Iranian government's human rights record in his songs and on social media.
Elham Fakhari is a psychologist, Politician, writer, painter, poet, member of the Central Council of the National Trust Party, and a former member of the City Council of Tehran, Ray, and Tajrish.
Abr Arvan is an Iranian content delivery network and cloud service company. As of 2020, it provided free cloud services to 300 Iranian companies. It also provides VOD, radar, object storage, Infrastructure as a service and Platform as a service to its buyers. According to Donya-e-Eqtesad it provides the cloud ecosystem for Iran. It had fifty thousand clients in 2020. Based on W3techs abr arvan is the eighth CDN provider in the world.
COVIran Barekat is a COVID-19 vaccine developed in Iran by Shifa Pharmed Industrial Group, a subsidiary of the Barkat Pharmaceutical Group. It is an inactivated virus-based vaccine. Iranian authorities have authorized its emergency use. This makes it the first locally developed COVID-19 vaccine to be approved for emergency use in the Middle East.
Divar is an Iranian Persian classified ads and E-commerce mobile app, and an online platform for users in Iran founded in Iran in 2012 with sections devoted to real estate, vehicles, goods, community service, Industrial equipment and jobs. On average, Divar’s users post more than 139.7 million new ads & over 53.1 million users open the app annually based on the latest published annual report.
Zakhm Kari is a 2021 Iranian neo-noir mystery drama and family series written and directed by Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian based on the 2017 Mahmoud Hosseini Zad novella Twenty Trenched Gashes, which is also based on William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Macbeth. The series includes 15 episodes, the first of which was released on Filimo on 4 June 2021. The second season titled "Return" will begin airing on September 8, 2023.
Mojgan Azimi is an Iranian-born Afghan singer and painter.
Alireza Esteki, one of the champions and coaches of boxing and bodybuilding, is the coach of the Iranian national boxing team.
The United States Cultural Diplomacy in Iran refers to the use of soft power of cultural diplomacy by the US government towards Iran in order to achieve its own interests.
Saghi Ghahraman is a Persian poet who is in the list of 100 Women (BBC) and is head of Iranian Queer Organization.
The State Welfare Organization of Iran, also known as the Behzisti Organization, is a working organization under the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour, and Social Welfare. Established after the 1979 revolution, the organization mainly works towards the betterment, rehabilitation, and improvement of the lives of disabled people, people in need of care, and orphaned children. It supervises and runs special needs education, addiction treatments and offers suicide awareness events.
Seyed Moein Taghavi, also known as Moein Taghavi, is an Iranian wushu athlete. Taghavi has a record of winning domestic competitions, Asian championships and world championships. He also won a gold medal in the Wushu World Cup and won the championship title, but due to the positive announcement of his doping test, the medal won was lost for Taghavi.
The Qods Mohajer 10 is an Iranian UCAV unveiled in 2023. It has an operational range of 2000 km, its airframe has a visual resemblance to the MQ-9 Reaper. It has a 24 hour flight endurance ability and can carry up to 300 kg of cargo, including munitions and electronic equipments. It was officially unveiled in August 2023, in the presence of the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the Minister of Defense Brigadier-General Mohammad-Reza Gharaei Ashtiani.
Amir Hossein Tatari is an Iranian professional basketball player for Al Wasl of the United Arab Emirates Basketball Association.
According to World Happiness ranking study Iran is among the unhappinest countries in the world. The Iranian regime is a theocratic Shia totalitarian government. Iranian regime also apprehends people making dancing videos. Average amount of money spent by Iranians for leisure is 57000 toman, while the average time is 4 hour, half of the average time spent by people in developed United States.
Saeideh Shafiei is an Iranian story writer and journalist. She contributes to economic topics in journalism, and her novel 'The Spiral Girl' has been published. Recognized as a laureate of the International Festival of Press and News Agencies, Shafiei was arrested at the same time as the Mahsa Amini protests, which are known as the 'Women, Life, Freedom' movement and occurred following the death of Mahsa Amini.