The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered myriad changes in our health, habits as well as our relationships with food, family and a lot of other things. With people confined to their home, trying to come to terms with a life on pause, they had a lot of time to kill. And, among other things, they sought to amuse themselves with gaming.
Nearly 45 per cent of India¡¯s mobile users started playing games on their smartphones during the pandemic, according to a survey by adtech firm InMobi. The lasting impact of the Covid-19 meant that people not only spent more time on mobile gaming, but they also experimented with a lot of different apps. On an average day, time spent on gaming apps surged through the day with 40 per cent.?
According to a KPMG report, India had the highest game downloads in the casual mobile gaming sub-segment in the world (excluding China) in 2020, with Q1-Q3 2020 downloads standing at 7.3 billion, accounting for 17 per cent? of the global mobile game downloads.
But the online gaming revolution had started much before, with the market seeing a tremendous growth in the years leading up to the pandemic, with an increase in both the number of gamers as well as user engagement levels. From about 250 million gamers at the end of FY18, the numbers of gamers in India grew close to 400 million by the mid of CY20, the second largest base of online gamers in the world after China.?
Though there has been some normalisation since the early days of the lockdown during in the first quarter of 2021, India had the highest game downloads in the casual mobile gaming sub-segment in the world (excluding China) in 2020, with Q1-Q3 2020 downloads standing at 7.3 billion, accounting for 17 per cent? of the global mobile game downloads. Further, the monthly active users for the top 100 mobile games and the time spent on online gaming, are higher by 10-15 per cent post lockdown 2020, indicating the establishment of a new normal.
The online gaming segment in India was estimated at ?136 billion in FY21 and is projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 21 per cent over FY21-FY25 to reach a size of ?290 billion. Of the total size, the online casual gaming sub-segment is the most significant one and stands at ?60 billion in FY21, accounting for more than 40 per cent of the total online gaming revenues. In terms of users, the online casual gaming sub-segment, at 420 million gamers in FY21 accounted for a staggering 97 per cent of the total gamers in India and is expected to maintain this share by FY25 going ahead.
Online gaming has gained increasing acceptance in India with a growth in the number of players reaching a tipping point. In addition to metros and tier 1 cities, penetration beyond tier 2 cities has also started gradually taking place. Further, there are an increasing number of women gamers and the social stigma and resistance to online gaming, specifically casual gaming, is gradually fading away. According to InMobi report, women comprise 43 per cent of the mobile gaming audience in India, of which 12 per cent are between 25-44 and 28 per cent over 45 years.?
E-sports has been a growing and emerging sub-segment in the country with close to 10-15 million viewers in India in FY20, which is projected to grow exponentially to 130+ million viewers by FY25. It¡¯s also been officially recognised by the Indian Olympic Association and is expected to enjoy an increased interest from brands for sponsorship, publishers to promote games and the entry of new players across the value chain ranging from organisers to participating teams. According to a KPMG estimate, India esports sub-segment is expected to grow by a CAGR 27 per cent over FY21-25 to reach a size of ? 5.7 billion.
Games like PUBG Mobile and Ludo King have helped transform the gaming segment in India. PUBG Mobile, which has now been rebranded as ¡®Battlegrounds Mobile India¡¯, pioneered the rise of multiplayer mobile gaming in India, which was previously considered as a very data intensive activity -- not to mention the impact it has in bolstering the esports and streaming ecosystem in the country. Ludo King, on the other hand, attracted a new demographic of players (45 years and older) that had been relatively lower in India and turned gaming into mainstream entertainment and a social media alternative.?
There has been an increase in the number of online game developers specifically in the casual mobile gaming segment in India owing to the increasing significance of the segment. The number of game titles across various genres have also increased over the last few years, leading to a wide spectrum of games being available to gamers. Furthermore, most of the popular games in India like Teen Patti by Octro, Ludo King by Gametion and others provide options to play games in local languages like Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi etc., thus attempting to target a large local audience.
There is a growing digital sophistication among Indians, with a higher awareness of online modes of payment, forms of entertainment like OTT, etc., which has led to a shift towards online gaming. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also extensively being used across game development (using AI generated storylines), player engagement, interactive experiences across gameplay, and personalization of each gamer¡¯s journey with games. Furthermore, cloud gaming, albeit in its nascent stage, has the potential to transform the gaming experience especially in markets like India, which has access to cheap internet and limited capacity to invest in hardware.
According to KPMG and Cisco estimates, India had over 500 million smartphone users in 2019, which is expected to balloon to 842 million by 2024. And researchers believe that at the heart of it will be the new JioPhone Next budget smartphone, built in collaboration with Google, that taps the 320 million users who are on 2G-enabled feature phones and 540 million who are still to buy their first own mobile devices.