India Set to Emerge as a Gaming Market Giant

Rising internet penetration, cheaper smartphones and free or cheap games are opening up new avenues for non-traditional gamers

The surge in India’s internet penetration rate has been phenomenal and with this surge has come a veritable trove of new internet related services. As per a comprehensive CII-TechSci report “Emerging Trends in India Gaming Industry”, internet penetration rate is expected to nearly double, from 275 million in 2015 to 507 million in 2020 and to nearly 1 billion by 2030. The same report goes on to forecast that mobile subscribers in India will go from 970 million in 2015 to over 1.4 billion by 2030. India is fast emerging as an internet giant, given the disruptive policies of telecom companies offering cheap data to smartphone users and favourable government policies that enhance wireless connectivity. New industries are being created every day in the service sector to deal with the demands and needs of nearly half a billion connected Indians. Several peripheral industries (in the Indian sense) are also getting revitalised due to internet connectivity.

One such peripheral industry is the gaming industry. As per CII-TechSci research, the growth in India gaming industry was in double digits between 2012-2016 and is set to reach over $ 800 million by 2022. While consoles and PC gaming has traditionally been popular with Indian gamers, the traditional constraints of money and time have always been present. Research suggests that with the aforementioned boom in internet penetration rate and the proliferation of smartphones, consoles and PC gaming is set to take a backseat, with mobile gaming capturing around 50% of the market share. This is not to say that console gaming and PC gaming are not popular; in fact, console gaming is set to grow at a CAGR of over 7% and PC gaming at around 4% between 2016-2022. The sheer number of people purchasing smartphones, improving wireless connectivity along with a propensity to spend rather than save are the main reasons as to why mobile gaming is set to get popular. ‘Hardcore’ gamers, research suggests, will continue to stick with their PCs and consoles for their gaming fix.

Gaming traditionally, in developing countries, has been restricted to the middle class, people with the awareness levels, time and money required to purchase and play video games. However, with internet connectivity and cheaper smartphones, mobile games also attract people who don’t have the propensity to get into other forms of gaming. It, however, represents a win-win situation for the gaming industry as a whole. Mobile, PC and console gaming are all well-defined, separate entities that don’t usually encroach on each other’s space, and in fact, with the rise of freemium games and free platforms for game creation, a proliferation of mobile gaming may imply that at least a few mobile gamers would get into PC or console gaming, thus representing a win for PC and console gaming systems.

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