Gaming Industry Hype
- The gaming industry in India is growing at a rapid pace. The gaming market in India is approximately 3.5 times more since 2016 and is expected reach the $1 billion mark this year, with a userbase of more than 628 Mngamers as of early 2021.
- India being a budget friendly market stands among the top five mobile gaming markets in the world. According to the All India Gaming Federation, online gaming grew by 12% during the lockdown period in 2020.
- More than 120 game development organizations have started operations in India giving a boost to the industry.
- Factors such as high young population, availability of quality smartphones at low costs, relatively cheap data plans, large number if games tailored to cater Indian market and widespread adoption of digital payment methods are some of the key drivers for the market boom.
- India is all set to become the industry leader of the modern world due to the increase in general interest and investment in the gaming culture. With proper nurturing and infrastructure, India has the potential to become the most advanced casual gaming development factory in the world.
Key Drivers for Market Growth
- Users tend to purchase games and in-game content when they are tailor made to cater to the Indian market.
- Excessive production and usage of low cost smartphones amongst urban and rural population has led to increase in consumer interest in gaming. Almost 75% of the market was dominated by entry-level or high end budget smartphones in 2015.
- The internet penetration is expected to reach ~53% of population by late 2021.
- The surge in the production of smart phones is accompanied by five times rise in internet data consumption.
- Moving ahead with such a background, the industry is expected to gain momentum.
Investments in the Industry
- Investment in the gaming industry grew by 78% to $173 Mn in 2020 compared to $97.1 Mn in 2019. The industry attracted $350 Mn venture capital investments between 2014-2020. With a growing CAGR of 22%, the industry is currently valued at $930 Mn and is expected to grow at 41% each year.
- Reliance Jioannounced its support for “console-like” gaming with its setup box. Bharti Airtel and NODWIN Gaming, South Asia’s esportscompany, has announced a partnership in 2020 to further grow esports in India.
- American game publisher RockstarGames acquired DhruvaInteractive; an Indian video game development company headquartered in Bengaluru in 2019. Later merged into RockstarIndia Studio and has around 500 employees in India.
- Kolkata-headquartered online games platform Baazi Games (card-based games) plans to invest $5 Mnin India’s gaming market in 2020. Investment would focus on gaming start-ups to nurture the latest gaming technology.
- Noida-headquartered ecommerce and payments firm PayTM and AlibabaGroup’s Hong Kong based AGTechHoldings formed a joint venture in 2018 to launch Gamepind – a localized platform hosting popular casual and sports games. PayTMinvested $8.8 Mn for 55% holding while AGTechHoldings invested $7.2 Mn for the remaining 45% shares.
- In 2017, Vietnam-based game developer StomStudio has partnered with Indian game distributor and publisher, Gamesbond, to develop casual arcade games.
