The gaming industry is one of the fastest-growing in the world. The market was estimated to be worth $173.70 billion in 2020 across the globe. But while the US and China constitute the largest market segments in the industry, India accounts for less than 1 percent of the market despite being the second-most populous nation due to the low penetration of electronics and the internet. However, the rapid adoption of 4G networks and smartphones in India has resulted in a mobile gaming revolution.

Mobile gaming is pushing the gaming industry to earn $1.5 billion in revenue, which is estimated to more than triple to $5 billion by 2025, stated a BCG-Sequoia India report. Better smartphones, increased internet access, popular titles, influencers, and the global pandemic were some of the reasons that pushed mobile gaming in India.

“The gaming industry in India has seen a growth of almost 40% in 2019-20, more than that of OTT, television and social media platforms. 86% of this market consists of mobile phone users. While there is large dependence on ad revenues today, increasing traction and engagement is expected to drive higher willingness to pay which will drive new ways of user monetisation and rising ARPUs in the coming years,” said BCG Managing Director and Senior Partner Vikash Jain.

While mobile gaming continues to succeed in India, high cost of electronic appliances like gaming consoles, PC components and physical gaming titles have kept PC gaming from taking off in India as it has in many other South-East Asian countries. The computer gaming market in India was estimated to be worth $102.8 million in 2021.

But the growing mobile gaming market also highlights a golden opportunity to onboard millions of new customers. Many, if not a majority, of mobile gamers place computer gaming as having a better gaming experience. According to the HP India Gaming Landscape Report 2021, 89 percent of respondents believed that PCs offered a better gaming experience than smartphones and 37 percent of mobile gamers were inclined towards migrating to a PC for gaming.

But with 9 out of 10 gamers being on smartphone devices, the PC gaming industry has a long way to go before it can even hope to compete with the country’s mobile gaming market. India’s mobile gaming market is one of the biggest in the world and is expected to grow further, already growing 40 percent in 2019-2020. The section is growing much faster than other media sub-segments like OTT, home entertainment, audio and more.

(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)

First Published:Nov 27, 2021 7:54 PM IST