Gone are the days when gaming was only a stereotype for tech-savvy geeks. In this world and age, gaming has taken the lead in the entertainment industry with more than a hundred billion dollars in yearly revenue. Yes, that’s right. According to recent figures from GamingScan, the gaming industry will generate a revenue of $152.1 billion in 2019. And from that value, the mobile gaming sector cuts the largest portion of that pie at 45.04% or an estimated amount of $68.5 billion. Besides that, it is also worth noting that the mobile gaming sector is the fastest-growing category in the video gaming space with a year-on-year growth rate of 10.2%.
Indeed, the explosion of the gaming industry has reached boundless opportunities and endless possibilities, but one thing is for sure: the global video games market is undergoing a massive shift to mobile gaming.
One of the main reasons for this shift is the mass adoption of smartphones that are more convenient and more easily accessible than PCs and home video game consoles. Plus, with higher mobile specifications and compatibility available today, data size is no longer an issue for games. In addition to that, more affordable smartphones and faster Internet connections that enable live simultaneous interconnected gaming among multiple players have primarily contributed to the spur in the growth and popularity of mobile games.
India as an Emerging Market for Mobile Games
The recent statistics from Newzoo reported that India is actually the country with the second-most number of smartphone users next to China accounting for 345,916,000 mobile users. With significant numbers such as this one, it is no surprise that India has been recognized as one of the most promising markets for mobile games. As a matter of fact, an industry study from Statista shows that the steady growth of mobile users will probably increase to 370 million by the year 2022 which accounts for about 405 million U.S. dollars in yearly revenue for the mobile gaming industry.
In terms of demographics, the gaming landscape in India still seems to be largely dominated by men who belong are between 20 and 35 years old. This community of players is mainly interested in action and adventure games, card games, and fantasy sports which is currently one of the most sought-after gaming genres in India. A report from IFSG-KPMG even states that back in 2016 there were just two million people playing fantasy sports and as of 2019, the number has already multiplied by ten-fold.
A thriving mobile gaming segment in India has allowed so much room for expansion and development that it has enticed big industry players to invest and capitalize on this upward trend in the Indian gaming market, and among them are international gaming giants such as Tencent, Alibaba, Youzu, and Nazara. Just this year, Sequoia Capital, an American venture capital firm, has even backed up the mobile E-sports platform Mobile Premier League with 35.5 million U.S. dollars in funding.
What’s Next?
As the gaming revolution moves to cloud-based services, we can likely see that the online gaming industry in India will also go after developing cross-platform games. Cloud gaming is a type of online gaming that provides players with smooth and direct playability of games across multiple platforms or devices. Meaning to say, with cloud-based games, you can now enjoy playing your favorite game on mobile, PC, console, and in the future, maybe even on VR and AR. But most particularly for the Indian market, the name of the game will be “accessibility” and soon there will be no limits as to where you choose to play.
The future of the Indian gaming market is definitely brighter than we thought it would be several years back. And with investments from overseas flooding in and with more affordable options in smart devices and high-speed data connectivity, we can confidently foresee India at the forefront of this revolution in the gaming realm. Hence, the question is not going to be how, but a matter of when?
