Online gaming is right now on a fast drive in India, and if we believe a recent study by Google and KPMG, then online gaming transform into a $1 billion or Rs 6400 crore industry by 2021.
And the most interesting aspect about the report is the massive increase in total number of online gamers in India: As per the report, by 2021, India will have whooping 30 crore gamers.
Online Gaming’s Fast Sprint in India
The report titled ‘Online Gaming in India: 2021’ by Google-KPMG is bullish on the growth rate of online gaming industry. As per their findings, the industry is growing at a rate of 117% per year, which is fastest anywhere in the world.
Right now, the industry is worth $360 million, which is become $1 billion by the time 2021 ends.
Besides, with faster internet connectivity and even faster smartphones and laptops, the total number of users will become three times, in the next 4 years. Right now, there are 120 million Indians who are avid online gamers, and this userbase will become 310 million in the next 4 years.
The report said, “With a 117 per cent spike in searches for online games by Indians, it is estimated that the current online gamer base of 120 million gamers in 2016 will grow to 310 million by 2021,”
Which Games Will Be More Popular
The report observes that freemium based games would be the ones which will drive maximum growth.
As per the report, freemium based games will witness smashing 22X growth in revenues (of the top 100 freemium games) in 2017, which is expected to become even more huge in the next three-four years.
Freemium based games are those, wherein the users need to pay in order to access higher and more advanced features of the games, including more features, options and avatars.
Some interesting facts from the report:
- A typical online gamer’s 1/3rd budget from online entertainment is spent on games
- 50%+ gamers are influenced to play a particular game based on suggestions by friends and family members
- 25% of gamers don’t associate much value in paying for a game
- In the last one year, online searches for games have increased by 2 times
- 60% of revenues of top 50 gaming apps is driven by strategy, puzzle and action genres of games
On an average, each gamer plays 6 games on his smartphone, and the type of games range from casual gamers who play puzzle based games to heavy gamers who play strategy based games.
Note here, that 75% of the respondents have a smartphone which costs less than Rs 20,000. This means that online gaming is now accessible to more middle class users, which was not the case earlier, as only those with expensive, above-Rs 30,000 smartphones used to opt for online games, which is now rapidly changing.
The report was based on responses from 3000+ active online gamers from cities such as Jaipur, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Vishakhapatnam, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Agartala and Shillong.