There was a time when playing games on your TV and PC was a complete waste of time. Parents used to tell their children not to play games and focus on their studies. But today, everything has changed. You can not only play games to feel relaxed or bust your stress, you can also make a career out of this.

When did it all begin?

Gaming started in the world in the year 1951. The very first popular, commercially available video game was Nimrod, simultaneously, IBM’s popular ‘Checkers’ game program (1950s). Engineer Ralph Baer developed a game called Pong. Later on, William Higinbotham created the revolutionary ‘Tennis for Two’ in 1958.

India started quite late compared to its western counterparts and never really took off during the reign of PC, consoles or had any presence in the arcade games era, followed by plethora for gaming devices with 8 bit to 16 bit games. We were largely a very small market for foreign titles and gadgets catering to the well-off tiny population.

Games released or invented in the 1950s

• Afrikan tähti (1951)

• Afrikan tähti (1951)

• Yahtzee (1954)

• Careers (1955)

• Jotto (1955)

• Perquackey (1955)

• Risk (1957, in French as La Conquête du Monde)

• Gettysburg (1958)

• RSVP (1958)

• Diplomacy (1959)

Late 1990s

Nokia embedded its first mobile game, Snake, on its handsets in 1998.

Japan’s success of I-Mode network-based games created a boom for WAP-games – users could play these games using WAP browsers installed on their phones.

Dreamcast console set

Early to mid-2000s 

Console and PC gaming companies started to invest in the mobile gaming market. In early 2000s, Snake Xenzia was released, and later moved to a red-and-white colour scheme, which gave a boost to mobile gaming.

Sega Genesis model 2 (North America)

Between 2001 and 2007, industry giants’ games, from the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog, Tiger Woods Golf, Madden NFL, The Prince Of Persia: Sands of Time and Splinter Cell, found their way to mobile devices for the first time.

2007 

Launch of Apple and Android app stores radically changed the mobile gaming market.

2008-2015 

Tap Revenge (2008), Doodle Jump (2009), Angry Birds (2010) and Temple Run (2011) were mega hits for the mobile gaming industry.

The year 2012 saw the success of games such as CSR Racing, Clash of Clans, Hay Day, Puzzles & Dragons and Candy Crush Saga in terms of magnetisation. In early 2013, Supercell announced its games were generating $2.4 Mn in revenue a day.

2016-2017 

In 2016 alone, more Indian developed games topped the local download charts on Google Play than ever before.

Freemium and Virtual Reality Games supported growth of the mobile gaming industry.

Around 40-50 million people played games on their smartphones and feature phones, at an annual growth rate of 40-50% in 2015.

At $206.5 million (2016), Augmented Reality-based game Pokemon Go topped the charts in terms of gross revenue generation by any mobile game ever in the first month.

2018-2020 

PUBG’s launch in India led to double-digit percentage growth in the number of mobile gamers.
Google launched cloud gaming service Stadia which allowed users to play without a console.

It is with the dawn of mobile games era India turned to gaming in a significant manner. There were three significant events, we can say, that created a base of developer ecosystem and consumer base.

First: Nokia’s global launch of its OVI game store. This was the first mobile based game store for India that the masses could access. They understood this is an ecosystem building game and made significant investments in cultivating, promoting and funding game developers. This is probably the biggest funding that many of us got during the 3 years with number of studios receiving crores in developing free to use games for the OVI store.

The store had loads of free games and with cheaper handsets, India started creating a huge base for mobile games. With user base and mobile based ad networks, ad monetization began to take roots. But there was no significant monetization opportunity for serious businesses yet.

Second: In 2013/14 with launch of the Google Play store / Android devices with full-fledged touch screen functions, games on full touch screen display with simple touch and swipe controls. This was a much bigger and stronger play by Google which spearheaded the market. The game playing base started growing by leaps and bounds. This was a big opportunity for many developers.

Third: When Reliance data play with affordable rates for mobile internet access. This exploded user base, monetization and created viable businesses.

Indian gaming market dynamics

Up until few decades back, gaming as an industry was almost non-existent in India. Only a tiny proportion of the population played games. There were sporadic gamers and video games which were mostly played mostly for fun and recreation, and majority of the people were not even aware that gaming could be seen as a serious profession.

There were no game development studios. Inspired by games such as Doom, Myst and Quake, the first of the early pioneers were just about beginning to dream of making games. I was myself just starting to put a 3D game development team together.

However, the dynamics of the Indian gaming ecosystem has been changing rapidly, and it has witnessed a lot of positive transformation in the last 5-10 years. Especially the growth in mobile gaming has been prolific. So much so that India emerged as one of the top 5 mobile gaming markets in the world by 2019.

In the recent years, gaming has definitely attracted a lot of eyeballs/attention in our country, as more and more gamers and esports players, gaming teams, and gaming-based communities have started coming up across various parts of the nation. The phenomenal rise of Fantasy Gaming and PUBG were among two major contributors for the ecosystem in the past few years. Gradually, MNCs and institutional investors also realized the humongous potential of India’s gaming market, and hence they are taking the leap into our gaming market by pouring in investments and/or funding Indigenous or India-centric games and gaming companies.

Parth Chadha, Founder & CEO, EWar Games - While it is true that the gaming market in India was booming even before the pandemic happened, but the growth was happening at albeit slow-at-steady pace as compared global level.  However, the virus outbreak that started in 2020 disrupted the entire ecosystem and accelerated the growth and engagement in the gaming in our country to unprecedented levels. For instance, we at EWar noticed a 3X growth in our user base since the pandemic.

At the moment, the largest and most significant contributor to the Indian gaming ecosystem is the mobile gaming segment, followed by PC gaming and tablet-based gaming (although both of them have a much lesser market share as compared to mobile).  Needless to say, smartphone and data proliferation across the country in past decade were the major enablers and growth drivers. Now that in India data is cheaper-than-ever before and smartphones are easily accessible and affordable, the gaming industry is bound to grow furthermore, led by a growing pool of mobile gamers.

The Growth of Indian Gaming Industry 

The Indian gaming industry has seen phenomenal growth since its inception in the country. The developments over the past few years are likely to make the industry grow at a CAGR of nearly 40%.

The Indian gaming market was sized at around US$1.1 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach US$2.8 billion by 2022. Mobile gaming is the leading sub segment and constitutes 85% of online gaming by volume. India is one of the top five mobile gaming markets in the world, accounting for 13% share of global game sessions.

Over the last year due to COVID-19, engagement, as measured by time spent in game has increased by 21% and total subscriber base rose to 300 million. Key growth Segments for gaming in India are Real Money Gaming (RMG), Esports and Fantasy Sports. It would not be exaggeration if one says that, COVID-19 has put the gaming sector ahead by one to two years.

According to the World Economic Forum, India’s soaring gaming industry is valued at $930 million. However, the Indian gaming industry is lacking when it comes to console gaming, primarily because of the whopping import duty. For instance, the same console is available at an affordable rate in the US market but costs much more in India. While there are more PC and mobile gamers, it does not give the kind of immersive gaming experience and resolution that it should.

With the saturation of all major markets including China (app store downloads in India grew 165% compared to China’s 70% during the same time period), many experts believe that the gaming market in India – with its young population, smart phone and broadband penetration, low mobile data charges etc. - is poised for explosive growth, which will, in turn, act as an engine for the growth of the global gaming market.

Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek India: - In India, online gaming is gaining huge popularity due to the higher penetration of smartphones and the cheaper data tariffs.  With over 560 million internet users, India is also the second-largest online market. As per the latest statistics, India recorded 365 million online gamers in the financial year 2020, and the number is likely to touch 510 million by 2022. Interestingly women comprise 43% of the mobile gaming audience in India, of which 12% are between 25-44 and 28 % above 45 years.

Over 50% of India’s population is below the age of 25, and 60% of the nation's gamers are under 25 years of age too. The surge in gaming comes from a growing need for virtual entertainment with friends, family and peer groups, coupled with the rise in influencers encouraging Indians to play more games. With digital consumption becoming mainstream, the demand for more diverse content has also grown.

Additionally, eSports in India accounts for 4% of the nation’s userbase and formed just over 9% of industry revenue before the pandemic. This sector is expected to grow 36% year-on-year in the next three years.

P.R. Rajendran, co-founder and CEO, Next Wave Multimedia Pvt. Ltd. - India’s big successful game business was native gaming. Simple games the masses enjoyed and connected, followed by the biggest success being Ludo King.  Ludo King was fully boot strapped and reached top 10 downloaded games in the world.

The India PC Gaming market has seen rapid growth in the past couple of years. In some segments, the growth has been more than 50% (y-o-y) which is the highest across all PC categories.  New age gamers using their smartphones for gaming are aspiring to elevate their gameplay on larger screens and powerful machines for more immersive experience.

Consumers have also started embracing gaming as a profession in India. Gamers do not necessarily earn from playing tournaments alone; Streaming, or “casting” games is already a viable source of income globally which is now fast expanding in India as well.

Nitish Singal, Head, Personal Systems (Consumer), HP India Market - We have witnessed the rise of binge-gaming as an even bigger trend among young gamers. Their longer binge-gaming sessions can be attributed in part to the rise of anywhere, anytime gaming.

Tasleem Arif, VP and R&D Head, OPPO India: - Amidst exciting growth prospects for India, we believe mobile gaming will see rapid growth driven by rising smartphone penetration, higher time spent due to high data affordability, need for interactivity and social engagement. With 5G era upon us, we are on the brink of the gaming revolution. 5G with its ability of low latency will offer more immediate and secure response in cloud gaming. With 5G, the response times between in-game characters will be faster than ever, making it feel like you’re really there with your friends and totally immersed in the gaming experience.

Current and forecasted market size

The Indian gaming market stands at $930 million at present and the industry is predicted to soon grow bigger than the music, movie and television industries put together, according to a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Ikigai Law, titled ‘Unpacking a Billion Dollar Industry: Digital Sports & Games in India’. The report states that the industry can be a key pillar of India’s digital ecosystem and strongly suggests legal and policy changes that could help unlock the industry’s true potential. According to one report by KPMG, the industry is likely to see robust growth from INR 43.8 billion presently to INR 118.8 billion by 2023, a fantastic growth rate of 22.1%.

Looking forward, the country’s online gaming industry is likely to add 190 million gamers and become a USD one billion market by 2021. According to Statista, the value of computer gaming market in India is projected to reach about 106 million U.S. dollars by the year 2022, marking a significant increase from about 84 million dollars in 2016. Investors can expect a 10-year growth outlook with a $3.8 billion valuation by 2024.

Another research by Statista states that the console gaming market is projected to account for about 36.3% of the gaming industry in 2022.

Gaming as the biggest revenue churner for the new age millennials

• 83% revenue on Google play store is from gaming. The same number stands at 66% in App store.

• 83% revenue on Google play store is from gaming. The same number stands at 66% in App store.

• In a shift from the past, Indian makers now develop games for the Indian audiences, instead of targeting western markets first, and subsequently enhancing their reach back home.

• In 2019, 5.6 billion mobile gaming apps were downloaded in India - the highest around the globe.

• The number of mobile gamers in India are estimated to increase from 85.9 million in 2017 to 326.0 million by the end of 2020

• Indian gaming industry’s revenue growth is pegged at 24.5% (CAGR) during 2017-2020

• PUBG has boosted the Indian mobile gaming market; originally a PC game, PUBG was shifted to mobile platforms in March 2018; it crossed 50 million users in India by May 2019.

Manas Agarwal, CEO and Co-founder, Affine:- Indian developers are dominating the gaming market, with local games such as Online Rummy, Teen Patti, Ludo, Snakes, Checkers and Chess. Most homegrown developers are focusing heavily on the localisation of games, adding unique Indianized features.

Online games are not limited to just two but multiple players; players can win more money by playing rummy for cash at multiplayer tables, which are more popular among them. Publishers have gained popularity by rolling out mobile versions of their games; PUBG Mobile, Fortnite, Asphalt Legends, Alto’s Odyssey and Call of Duty are some of the most successful names in this context.

Impact of pandemic COVID-19

Undoubtedly, gaming and esports was benefitted immensely after the Covid-19 pandemic happened. In the early days and months of the Covid-19 lockdown in India, gaming became a major source of recreation/entertainment during the times when people had to remain confined their homes. In order to add a social or interactive element or as an antidote to boredom even while staying at homes, many people of different ages turned to gaming and started playing with friends and family.

Hence, user engagement spiked immediately and the various gaming platforms in the country started reporting crazy traffic and volume of users. In fact, it would be right to say that the lockdown period ushered the “golden era” for gaming in India. As people started playing different types of games, they also woke up the prospect of playing for real/virtual money and earning through gaming. This was another major factor that led to further boost in real-money games’ space and the gaming ecosystem at large.

• Time spent on gaming apps surged 41%

• Time spent on gaming apps surged 41%

• InMobi indicates that almost 45% of mobile users in India were introduced to gaming during the pandemic.

• Mobile game downloads soared in April, reaching a peak of 197 million in a single week — a 75% jump compared to the weekly average of previous quarter

• Ludo King, PUBG Mobile, Clash of Clans and Teen Patti–Online Poker were some of the popular products that gained traction

• Mobile gamers’ share increased to more than 89%

• Games in the arcade, casual and casino categories spiked more than 150% in terms of app usage (January-April 2020)

• Users of online gaming platform Adda52Rummy from Delhi, Kolkata and Gujarat increased

• No. of mobile gamers using Paytm grew three-fold in March

• Paytm Games’ Rummy gained most traction, with both the number of users and gameplays doubling every week

• Daily active user base of Ludo King leaped from 13 million - 15 million to 50 million

COVID-19 fed our need for virtual entertainment with friends, family, and peer groups in form of gaming. In the new normal, when most people were stuck at home, gaming emerged as a preferred mode of entertainment especially for millennials.  According to Newzoo, driven by its 1.3 billion players, PC gaming was expected to grow at more than 4.4% year on year to $36.9 billion in 2020. Meanwhile, the expected growth rate for console gaming stood at 6.8% year on year to $45.2 billion, boasting over 729 million players.

According to data from GameAnalytics, the total amount of playtime hit a peak of over 90 million hours in the last ten days of March 2020, 62% higher than the first ten days of January. The enormous growth in gaming in lockdown opens opportunities for other companies related to gaming to do their part and accelerated demand for gaming storage and gaming supplies.

Subsequently, after the few months, as the virus spread slowed down and the Unlock process in the country began, the graph in terms of user engagement did fall a little. However, as compared to the pre-Covid levels, the engagement and user volume were still higher.  It was also noticed that the user behaviour of both amateur and professional gamers changed a lot after the lockdown.

More and more gamers started remaining active throughout the day on gaming platforms ad game apps (as opposed to pre-Covid when most gamers would only be active during the evenings or at specific time slots during the day).

Not only that, the gamers who picked up or sharpened their gaming skills during the lockdown continued to play (and most did not uninstall/remove the gaming apps). Esports also noticed a major boost during and after the outbreak. During the lockdown period many tournaments/championships were organized with huge numbers of participating gamers and huge prize pools; the trend is continuing in 2021 and beyond.

Manvendra Shukul, CEO, Lakshya:- The COVID-19 lockdown resulted in a significant increase in both – the number of people playing games as well as the duration for which people were playing games. Another key reason for more people taking to gaming during the pandemic has been their desire to connect with others socially through games. Games such as Ludo especially saw a significant increase in downloads and the average time spent on games. It is estimated that 4 to 5 million Indians watch eSports regularly. Those who were bitten by the eSports bug at this time have possibly become life-long converts.  

Key growth factors of gaming in India

The factor that contributed towards the growth of gaming is the need of social engagement. A recently published report titled "State of Online Gaming 2021” by Limelight Network stated that from 2020 to 2021, the average for binge gaming in India has increased from 4.1 hours to 5.5 hours. This is because the pandemic has restricted people to stay home for long hours.

Sameer Bhatia, Director Asia Pacific Consumer Business Group and Country Manager SAARC & India,

Seagate Technology:- India has nearly 600 million internet users, making it the second-largest internet consumer. With high-speed 4G - and the emergence of 5G - internet penetration and the world’s lowest data tariffs, the appetite for content among the youth of India has grown. Based on the data, gamers are realizing the monetization value through revenue streams like in-app purchase, pay per download and subscription service. Advertisers and publishers are also making the most of the monetization opportunity through in-app advertisement, incentive-based advertisement etc. 

The report further stated that opportunities for interactivity and social engagement are the key drivers for video game adoption with the majority (64 percent) of global gamers saying that they started playing video games in the past year.

The report also indicated that three quarters of gamers are interested in purchasing a new console, due to updated technology and faster game play. Some of the key factors that have driven the growth of gaming in India in recent times are:

• Cheap availability of mobile data (aka the “Jio Effect”)

• Increasing average income leading to higher Smartphone penetration coupled with greater acceptance of digital payment mode

• Digital reincarnation of popular Indian household games like Rummy, Teen Patti and LUDO. A lot of families turned to such games especially during the lockdown.

• The runaway success of PUBG (prior to its ban). PUBG clearly established that Indians are ready to spend money on games other than Teen Patti and Rummy.

• Easy availability/access to social games• Word of mouth/Peer groups/social interaction

Prashanth Rao, Partner, Deloitte India:- One of the strongest growth drivers in the gaming industry is India’s demographic dividend. With median age around 29, which is significantly lower than other economies like China or Japan, and increased inclusion of women and rural population into the targeted segments the number of viable consumers shows a solid upward trend.

Another equally relevant factor is the rise in the number of smartphones in India. Volume of smartphones is due to increase from 500 million to more than 800 million by 2022. On top of that, there is a larger base of top tier affordable smartphones in the market which include advanced features such as GPUs, liquid cooling and HDR displays, specifically designed to be, at least in part, gaming machines. Ergo not only are there more game capable devices these devices are also able to support more immersive and engaging gaming.

India has more than ~500 million active internet users and has one of the lowest per unit data costs in the world. Internet availability has gone up in rural areas bringing 4G connectivity to hitherto untapped segment of users. The availability of highspeed data has enabled marked upticks in gaming uptake. It enables low latency multiplayer gaming even for relatively graphics and computing heavy games such as PUBG and COD, while enabling new users to join Real money and Fantasy sports gaming segments which may not require a lot of data but rely on good connectivity, nonetheless.

A lot of new games are coming up and being built in India, for India. Many gaming platforms have starting capturing the right trends and tapping into the right consumer sentiments (like Fantasy leagues around IPL or other cricket tournaments and focusing on vernacular games).

Another key factor in the growth of the gaming ecosystem has been the rise in prize pools in competitive gaming and sponsors and big companies backing/funding the growth of players, teams, and the gaming ecosystem at large. With monetization happening at scale, gamers have understood that gaming is indeed a lucrative opportunity and that a great career (while earning great money) can be made out of serious gaming.

Ranganath Jagannath, Director – Growth, Agora.io:- At a macro level access to affordable smartphones, high-speed 4G internet penetration, low data tariffs and an increase in disposable incomes are the factors that have contributed to the growth of gaming in India.

How was the last five years?

The last five years have paved a highly positive outlook for the Indian gaming ecosystem. There has been a lot of traction, growth in user base and engagements, prize pools have increased substantially for esports, and investments and numbers of gamers and new games have been increasing on a constant basis. The pandemic gave a further push and boost to the ecosystem and led to unforeseen growth.

Going forward, the trajectory will only be onwards and upwards for the gaming industry in India. Nowadays, game streaming has become a very large industry in itself. A lot of content is being built around gaming and a lot of online/digital gaming content is being streamed on a regular basis. Gaming content is becoming mainstream, and is right now even competing with the entertainment industry.

At the global level, it is already seen that gaming content is already giving tough competition to OTT or movie production segments. For instance, in 2019, OTT giant Netflix said that it considers Fortnite (a popular game in the US) to be a more fierce competitor than HBO! In India too, hundreds (if not thousands) of popular game streamers and gaming content creators have started emerging. As more and more have players start playing games and creating content around Freefire, Valorant, COD, etc., communities will be built around gaming more actively and large-scale monetization will happen.  With esports on the rise and catching up to the levels of popularity of real-world sports like cricket in India, we strongly believe that in the future (maybe in the next 4-5 years) gaming has the scope and potential to be at par with (or even surpass) box office revenues!

Green Lin, Regional Marketing Manager, MSI:- The Indian gaming industry has grown nearly 60% over the last three years, and the sector shows no signs of slowing. In the long term, it may have the potential to overtake Indian box office revenues, which are presently more than double that of the gaming industry. The average consumer is value-conscious and price sensitive, and the product strategies and monetization models reflect this.

Role of technology

Technology is definitely acting as an enabler for the digital/online gaming industry in India, and has been playing a key role in the betterment of the ecosystem over the years. Technological advancements are always aimed at solving problems, and so it has been doing for the gaming industry as well.

There are several aspects of technology associated with the gaming industry. One of the most important factors is that technology allows for people to communicate with each other in real-time while playing a game.

Today's advanced technology allows for capabilities like extremely low-latency 3-D spatial audio using proximity-based sensing to determine another player’s distance and position—just like you would in the real world. Similarly, the emergence of low power consumption that is designed to reduce mobile device battery drain without sacrificing quality for maximum high-quality game time has allowed for better gaming experience.

Sameer Bhatia, Director Asia Pacific Consumer Business Group and Country Manager SAARC & India, Seagate Technology:- In the past few years, technology has refined gaming experience for users across the world. From the development of electronic games to the era of arcade games, the gaming industry has made an advancement beyond imagination. The invention of 3D graphics added life to gaming experience with realistic textures, computing physical characteristics, and enabling in-game interactions between objects. Facial recognition, voice recognition, gesture controls, high-definition displays, virtual reality, augmented reality, wearable gaming consoles, portable gaming through smartphones, cloud technology etc. transformed the world of modern gaming. More awaits the gaming industry as the new generation is all set to see the fantasy world of games to come alive through technological advancements.

Adaptive video resolution, with immediate initial video rendering and seamless channel switching to provide a reliable stream without delay, against even the most challenging network conditions is another pre-requisite. Another important aspect is the ability to enable both local and server-side RTMP conversion for seamless integration with CDN services.

In terms of technology usage, a lot of innovative stuff has been happening lately. Technology is not only used to enhance user experience and game design, but many games are nowadays being built and played with the help of AR and VR technologies. Even Blockchain-based games, Cloud gaming etc. are being experimented with.

Lastly, the ability to record multiple streams locally or on the cloud, controlling the audio and video quality as well as the recording layout is crucial.

In a nutshell, the technology powering digital gaming has to provide a high-quality experience so that players can focus on the game and inter-player interactions.

Parth Chadha, Founder & CEO, EWar Games:- That being said, in a mobile-first country like India, the adoption of new technologies is a little slow, due to concerns or problems around hardware, equipment, and compatibility. Be it with any form of technology or technological upgrade, it has to be scalable and be able to work with low-latency issues/gaming environment in India.  Only if the user has a seamless experience, they will be adapting or moving to new technologies.

Drivers and Challenges

Until a few years back, there was a lot of stigma/taboo around gaming in India; myths like gaming leads to hate or violence in the society or that gaming is just a waste of time have been propagated over the years and acted as a hindrance for gamers. In the Indian tradition, our parents had never encouraged us to play games (especially indoor games).

However, now that gaming has become mainstream and esports is growing rapidly, people are waking up to the realization that gaming can actually become a serious profession and help in earning good money. So, eventually we can hope that these myths or stigmas will go away and the mindset will change in the favour of gamers and the gaming community.

Also, previously, gaming was seen mostly as a somewhat non-social activity that disconnects one with the outer world or society. However, now that e-sports communities are booming and lot of interactions are happening in the gaming arena every single day, this logic also does not hold ground anymore. In my opinion, however, more awareness is needed to spread on the facts that gaming is a serious business, and it needs as much efforts, energy, hustle and seriousness to be successful as a gamer, as in any other domain whatsoever.

Drivers: The gaming industry in India has been leveraging improvements in technology to maximize growth and customer retention and immersive user experience. Gaming platforms use analytics on user behavior and advanced machine learning algorithms to maximize user retention, improve user experience and increase in app purchases. Another trend is the adoption of gamification in other high growth industries to drive user engagement and retention such as edutainment, OTT content platforms, e-commerce etc.

Rajesh Doshi, Co-Founder and Director, Zebronics India Pvt. Ltd:- Gaming in India is still seen as a passing time activity rather than known for its skills or for the opportunities that serious gamers can get exposure to. The lack of awareness on opportunities as a gamer could be a reason and also more support is needed from the government to help build the infrastructure.

Challenges: Despite the rise in disposable income, historically Indian’s wallet share of entertainment, such as gaming, is relatively low. This leads to high churn in gaming. The users are highly price sensitive and its challenging to monetize the games through purchases and microtransactions. Much of the revenue is driven through Ads. Regulation governing the sector is also evolving in parallel, which has resulted in some ambiguity in the areas of content censoring and legality of certain types of games. This has slightly dented the investments and business plans of the sector.

• Piracy coupled with high duties and taxes have pushed up the cost of gaming consoles

• Not enough local content

• Low-cost mobile phones – leading to downgraded performance

Achin Gupta, Country Head-India, ZOOOK:- The penetration of 8k is very less. In the past two years, 4k has flourished but not much headway has been made in the 8k segment. This equilibrium needs to improve. Furthermore, cyber security continues to remain a major cause of concern.

Who are betting big?

The size and scale of the gaming industry in India is growing constantly; hence, today’s brands/companies cannot overlook the scope and the potential business revenues that can be generated from gamers. Brands are becoming interested in collaborating with/sponsoring esports and gaming tournaments and strategic brand/product placement opportunities.

Furthermore, a lot of tech companies are nowadays coming up with gaming laptops, tabs and game-compatible devices. A lot of mobile phones are also incorporating gaming-centric features, graphics, etc and increasing the screen sizes to enhance gamers’ experience. The hardware, gaming console and other types of gaming accessories and gaming-related equipment market is also expanding parallelly and growing in leaps and bounds.

Reliance and Bharti Airtel are definitely betting big on the segment. Though strategies they are taking are stark different. Reliance is betting majorly on casual games, partnerships with Microsoft, Facebook, Tesseract for VR might give them a position of dominance in the Indian market in times to come. Whereas, Bharti Airtel is betting more on Esports in India.

Nazara, leading game publishing India recently announced partnership with EA to dominate India. This again is one of many more to come. The entire space will however explode with 5G hitting the markets.

Is smartphone taking over PC gaming?

Most of us think that smartphone has taken over gadgets like camera, PC, gaming console, etc. However, this can be true at some cases, but not for all, let’s see what industry experts think about it –

Manvendra Shukul, CEO of Lakshya:- Access to low-cost smartphones and internet reaching every corner of the country has been the sole driver of mobile gaming dethroning the PC. Mobile gaming holds a lion’s share of 80-90% in the overall online gaming pie. PC and console gaming cater to a limited, though engaged audience, whereas mobile gaming, thanks to its inherent convenience and flexibility, is more popular.

Moreover hardcore gaming requires time and dedication along with resources needed for PCs and consoles thus appealing to a smaller set of audience. According to a recent survey, a significant population of heavy gamer(s) use mobile phones (84%) as the primary device to play online games (PC is at 10%).

Parth Chadha, Founder & CEO, EWar Games:- Yes, definitely mobile gaming in India has taken over PC gaming, and that too by a large margin! PC gaming needs a significant amount of capital investments; a good high-end Gaming PC with high-quality graphics configurations can cost upto lakhs; whereas in India smartphones are available easily in a few thousands of rupees.

This is the reason why mobile gaming dominates, and will continue to dominate (in the years to come) the gaming ecosystem in our country. Even game developers and gaming companies have taken a note of the same, and have started creating and/or introducing mobile-first or mobile-only version of their games to take a pie of India’s booming mobile gaming market.

Achin Gupta, Country Head-India, ZOOOK:- PC gaming experience is a different experience altogether. Mobile gaming is more about ease and portability. However, for gaming you need a stable platform, which comes in the form of PC. For instance, it is more accurate and easier to aim on PC gaming over mobile gaming.

Green Lin, Regional Marketing Manager, MSI:- With the increased internet penetration in the country, the popularity of online gaming is spreading to smaller towns and cities. These cities are also contributing significantly to the growth of gaming equipment sales in the country.

According to our experience, we feel a real gamer will chase for different scenarios for both mobile and PC as both will have a completely different experience. Its more dependent on the ecosystem instead of pitting against each other. We believe features like 300Hz display, VR ready laptops and MSI App player helps the user play his favourite game seamlessly on the big screen with a comfortable keyboard, mouse, and controllers. With more opportunities being provided to these gamers, we aim at fulfilling the needs and expectations toward professional gaming by delivering products for not just people who have chosen gaming as a profession but also are budding gamers.

Rajesh Doshi, Co-Founder and Director, Zebronics India Pvt. Ltd:- As I have mentioned earlier mobile gaming is getting popular because of the ease of availability and affordability, it is more of a portable gaming platform used for casual gaming. We have seen a good growth in PC gaming post Covid as everyone continues to work from home. Both platforms have their pros and cons and they’re are here to stay in the future.

The key developments in the gaming market in India

As indicated earlier, increased accessibility to internet, smartphone penetration and affordable broadband connectivity is revolutionizing the gaming industry. More people are joining online gaming communities and a rise in game streaming is presenting opportunities to gamers to monetize their skills and passion.

Another notable trend is the movement of gaming companies towards diversified revenue options built on gamer engagement and evolved experiences. Innovative in-game revenue streams are finding their way, with lesser emphasis on download volumes and advertisements.

Other significant factors such the ease of making (micro) payments and the ability of Indian gaming companies to generate interest from the investor community has been a key development in the gaming industry and promises to be a sunrise sector.

How might 5G change the gaming industry?

Digital gaming has been a savior for many during the past one year, keeping us all engaged and entertained. Now, with new technology and experiences coming to play, the entire gaming industry is ready to enter the cusp of change – where not only new console generation and storage technologies will be witnessed but the advent of 5G technologies will fully unlock the potential of mobile gaming.

Talk of the advent of 5G has been buzzing in the tech communities for some time, but now numerous telecommunications companies have announced the launch of their 5G-enabled devices and networks. Its impact on real-time communications and user engagement, especially on mobile devices, will be transformative.

The emergence if 5G shall definitely aid the further growth of the gaming industry in India. With adoption of 5G, a majority of the existing bandwidth and latency issues can be resolved, and therefore it will lead to a smoother and more seamless user experience for the growing pool of gamers in our country. Over the years, once mass adoption of 5G happens, it can result in a new kind of revolution/positive transformation for the gaming industry stakeholders.

5G is expected to bring new depth to real-time audio and video experiences. Ultra HD experiences will become the norm across all RTE-enabled features to deliver truly immersive mobile experiences. Near zero latency will also pave the path for previously blocked use cases, including cloud game streaming whereby game delivery platforms can offload most of the heavy computational work to data centres running the latest hardware.

With response times as low as five milliseconds, this means in-game action will be smoother than ever, with no lag between your input and the game's response. With 5G's greater reliability, this should hold true, even with high numbers of concurrent players.

How 5G will evolve cloud gaming?

In India, Cloud gaming is still at a nascent stage, and needs to undergo a lot of developments. Furthermore, the whole concept of Cloud gaming is quite novel, as it enables and unveils a very futuristic form of gaming where the need for gaming hardware would be reduced or removed entirely.

While 5G can definitely, in the future, provide a booster dose to India’s overall gaming ecosystem, but it cannot be alone be responsible for the rise of Cloud-based gaming in our country. For that to happen, proper infrastructure (around Cloud gaming) needs to be built and servers need to be scaled up. In this context, it is also important to note that Cloud Gaming concept will majorly transform the PC gaming segment; but in a country like India where mobile gaming is predominant over PC gaming, it remains to be seen if at all Cloud gaming can make a lot of difference!

Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek India:- As per the KPMG report, the audience for e-sports in India will exceed 130 million by 2025. Telecom/Internet service providers in India are exploring the potential around e-sports to sustain business momentum in today’s highly competitive market conditions where ARPU is under pressure. The industry is abuzz with collaborations and gaming tournaments, with leading operators already engaged in organizing such tournaments. The recent e-sports tournament on Garena Free Fire organized by JioGames in collaboration with MediaTek fetched an excellent response with over 70,000 registrations and several million viewers. More such industry collaborations are expected as gaming firms like Activision, Garena and Supercell have expressed their interest to invest in India’s e-sports ecosystem. Telcos committing to this highly competitive segment are bolstering their network with the best technologies to deliver seamless connectivity and immersive experience to the users.

The security risks and prevention

Security risks in gaming can be categorized into privacy related risks and data breach risks for gamers. It's said that data is the oil for 21st century, mobile & PC games often access personal information like contacts, GPS, information about other apps etc. This essentially means every time a teenager is agreeing to play that game, they're giving personal information about themselves and their habits to the gaming company.

Based on geography of the gaming companies and laws governing them, the data can easily be shared to third parties or even governments of other nations. Ethics sadly have not been a strong suite of gaming companies in the past, we saw EA sports being fined €10 million for promoting gambling within their games.

Gaming companies have been a target of data breaches recently, this is a very real threat of data loss faced by users. If you also link your credit card to buy virtual currency etc. within the game then chances are that with gaming company's data breach your data is leaked too.

Big companies like Zynga, Armorgames, Flashgames etc have been a victim of data breach in the last two years. In addition - with majority of gaming community in India being of teenagers, susceptibility to social engineering fraud also arises where these teenagers talk to fellow participants in these games and end up taking life threatening steps like we saw in the case Blue Whale Challenge.

Shikhil Sharma, CEO and Founder, Astra Security:- The fraud worked around getting young gamers hooked to online games involving real money where they won initially but eventually the games were programmed to make them loose. Young individuals ended up in which caused them to take their own life. A very sad outcome from a rather shiny world of gaming.

With big guns like Facebook betting big on gaming and Indian gaming community growing throughout the lockdown, the future is bright but cyber threats are also equally real. Being conscious of your data and privacy is the key.

Other risks or concerns include cheating, hacks, and various other online malicious activities that are done by some users. Smartphone/Id compromise is another key issue noticed wherein users may try to log in from different IPs or smartphones and/or create different Usernames or User IDs in a bid to have a completive advantage in certain games or tournaments. In the real-money gaming space, people with bad intent may also try to attack systems and withdraw money unscrupulously.

Advancement in data security is a constantly evolving process. Many gaming companies, platforms, and/or game developers have tried to build multi-layer security, encryptions, firewalls, etc. to prevent such data breaches and malicious activities.

Many popular games already have strong anti-cheat policies and cybercrime prevention modules in place, wherein users/players who undertake such activities or wrongdoings are penalized. Those who don’t have such protocols yet, must take data security seriously and enact such measures immediately. However, even with stringent policies and protocols, breaches continue to happen and security concerns keep coming up again and again. Hence, the key is to stay aware, stay alert and understand that only fair gaming will uphold the values of gaming community and will help the ecosystem to grow.

Apart from privacy & data breaches recent frauds have also been worrisome. Especially the ones that led to suicides by young gamers in Hyderabad, what followed by a deep investigation which uncovered an online gaming racket involving Chinese nationals.

Gaming: Future trends

The Indian gaming and esports industry has now started getting global attention. In the near future, the number of professional gamers and the volume of investments will continue to rise and increase. At the same time, the rewards and/or prize pools for esports tournaments in India will continue to cross new heights, and brands will try to figure out newer and innovative ways to market or promote themselves through gaming.

More interest in gaming, more content creators and more game streaming will lead to a further increase in viewership and more lucrative opportunities for serious gamers and esports players. The sky will be the limit when it comes to the growth of esports in India, and the day might come when online gamers are equated with Cricket players and athletes!

Another trend that we expect to see in the Indian gaming ecosystem is the rise of collegiate esports, i.e. esports being played at the high school and college/university levels. Taking a cue from Western countries like the US, collegiate gaming and e-sports (like inter-college or intra-college tournaments or games) have started gaining ground in India also.  While gaming is already quite popular among the student community in India, if and when they are encouraged by their colleges or academic institutions to partake in esports, the scene will explode. The day may not be too far when e-sports clubs, teams, etc. in all major academic institutions, and even esports degrees, coaching, etc. will be offered!