The pandemic may have been brutal to many people, businesses, and industries, but this doesn’t seem to be the case for the gaming sector. In India, the lockdown imposed to avoid the spread of the virus has been the reason why there was around 50 percent growth in the gaming industry. The national average gaming time spent by the locals reached over 4.1 hours which was only at 2.5 hours before the pandemic.
While the global gaming market grew in general, India’s gaming segment is quite a standout when it comes to growth by the segment. KPMG released a report about how Indians are starting to engage more in online casual gaming. According to them, the online casual gaming sub-segment in the country is valued at over 60 billion INR this year and they project that it would reach over 169 billion INR with a CAGR of 29 percent from 2021 to 2025.
The locals are mainly playing mobile games and even real money games on online casinos in India. Based on the KPMG report, India has the highest number of downloads in the casual mobile games category last year. From Q1 to Q3 of 2020, the number of mobile games download in the country reached 7.3 billion. This makes the country account for 17 percent of the global mobile game downloads.
What Are the Indians Playing?
Nowadays, there are just so many mobile games that people can choose from and Google Play Store and The App Store have these games categorized differently. Adventure, RPG, casual, are just some of these categories. When it comes to mobile game developers, popular company names include Activision, EA, Epic Games, Blizzard, Garena, and many more.
Caster and streamer Ketan “K18” Patel recently shared his thoughts on what games that the locals are playing with Red Bull. His top list includes games like Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Call of Duty: Mobile, Free Fire, and PUBG Mobile, Candy Crush Soda Saga, Subway Surfers. World Cricket Championship, Genshin Impact, and Ludo King.
The games on his list are indeed part of the most downloaded mobile games in the country. Now, when it comes to real money games, Big Cash reported a huge increase in the number of their gamers aged 35 and above.
According to the company, they rose from 20, 000 per month in February of last year. This was a month before the pandemic hit. Then came May 2021 when they saw a huge number of monthly user increase to 90, 000. However, they noticed that younger people at the age bracket of 18 to 24 are also now participating in their games.
Other apps that are reported to be popular during the lockdown are Ludo King, Bubble Shooter, and Rummy 13. The founder and CEO of Big Cash, Ankur Singh, spoke about how the Indian gaming industry is developing. He said, “This is not just a boom, but the Indian gaming industry is developing.
“Considering that close to 80 percent of the Indian population is yet untapped, we are merely seeing now what would have eventually happened. The pandemic merely set off the phenomenon early. Games like rummy, poker, and call break have seen major traction snice March 2020, with our user base rising form 5 million in March 2020 to 25 million in March 2021.
“This is expected to cross 50 million by the end of this year. Notable, paying gamers have been doubling year on year with 30 plus aged gamers increasingly driving real money gaming since the pandemic has started. “
The Future of Mobile Gaming in India
The rise of online gaming in India is somehow thanks to the pandemic, but it’s also worth pointing out that even without the health crisis, the industry has been thriving and growing. In India, gaming has been on the rise in the last few years.
This could be mainly thanks to mobile technology and better internet infrastructure in the country. Mobile devices nowadays are becoming powerful yet unexpensive. Many would rather purchase a smartphone than spend money on gaming consoles or PC these days.
India is also starting to get better internet connection. It is reported that 5G internet connection should be available in the country by August 15 to coincide with the country’s 75th anniversary of independence. With 5G becoming more available in the country and mobile devices more accessible, we can only expect that there will be more mobile gamers in the coming years. This is even if the pandemic is over.