The rate of the gaming industry is growing exponentially each year in tandem with the digitisation. In a recent report launched by Report linker, it was indicated that the global video game landscape looked replete with opportunities in the smartphones, tablets, PCs, and consoles market with even brighter future prospects.
The global video game market is expected to reach an estimated $179.1 billion by 2024 with a CAGR of 6.4 per cent from 2019 to 2024. Mobile and online distribution of games are driving the growth of video game industries.
The report states that there has been a direct impact on the dynamics of the video game industry owing to the development of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) based head mounted displays (HMD) and heads-up display (HUD) products and development of games for academic and skill development.
Key results of the report
Here are the few predictions on the global market as per the report:-
- The shooting game will remain the largest segment due to increasing interest towards action-packed video games across all age groups thanks to its makers the players have many options available on the internet to choose from of which some are free to play and some are pay to play. The constant improvement in graphics quality which provides real life like the mission is driving the market for shooting games towards the upward direction according to the report and it will continue too.
- Considering the video game market, smartphone-based games will remain the largest segment and it is also expected to witness the highest growth over the forecast period due to new launches of smartphone-based games, such as PUBG, Battlelands Royale, and War Robots and due to the high usage of these games in emerging nations.
- The Asia Pacific will remain the largest region and it is also expected to witness the highest growth over the forecast period due to increasing smartphone users and rapid internet growth in the emerging nations. The growing internet users have enabled a steady rise in the online video game market, as it allows gamers to increase the gaming experience with a high-speed internet connection.
Not only that, players are seen to be vying for the leading spot for the year 2024 amid aggressive competition. Case in point; China’s gaming market reached $8.46 billion in the first quarter of 2019, upwards of 8.8 per cent from the previous quarter and 5.1 per cent from a year earlier.
According to the Q1 19 China Gaming Industry Report jointly released by IDC and GPC, the gaming market has shown signs of recovery and regained growth momentum, thanks to the favourable policies such as the resumption of game approvals and incentives for going global.
Trends which are sketching the Indian video gaming scene :
With the emergence of the gaming sector in India, it is seen to be gearing up significantly for years 2024 in the sphere of smartphone gaming. In a candid conversation with us, Cympl Studio co-founder Rituraj Behera shared that the gaming market is growing big in India and casual gaming market is pushing the chariot forward. “India will surely have a massive market opportunity in the next five years in the casual space which apparently has the most number of gamers. As per Google, we will reach over 600M+ active users with smartphones and access to the internet,” he added.
Given the fact that monetisation scenario has improved in favour of developers as well as players, casual gaming is seen to be thriving over the years. No longer do players have to struggle with the prospect of looking for authentic wallets as the digital environment has been made much safer and viable for players to operate.
With the availability of the e-wallets like PayTm and PhonePe, it has become a hell of a lot simpler for players to make purchases as opposed to the times before. “With the emergence of Jio, the number of people who make use of mobile data has increased significantly. That, in turn, has boosted mobile game downloads, which has resulted in better revenue through monetisation,” he expressed.
In addition to that, in the recent report from Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG) and KPMG India Private Limited (KPMG) titled ‘The Evolving Landscape of Sports Gaming in India’, it was stated that the online gaming revenue is expected to grow to Rs 11,900 crore by 2023.
In 2018, there were 250 million gamers and 250 game developing companies and it seems to be growing at an exponential rate ever since. In the same context My11Circle business head Saroj Panigrahi echoed, “In the coming years, the market competition will only intensify, with the expected fantasy sports users growing to 100 million by 2020.”
The hyper-casual gaming industry has gone through many phases of technical evolution. In an effort to ease players’ troubles of downloading multiple games, companies have introduced gaming platforms on which players can play a variety of games and might get to earn cash prizes at the same time.
For instance, the hyper-casual gaming platform Pocket league currently has over 100,000 registrations with over 20 Million game replays and average time spent per user per day of 30 Minutes. “The Indian gaming industry is growing rapidly and there are skilled talents out there. The bigger studios are putting out great quality content. They are innovating with content targeting India. Some of the work being done by independent studios is top-notch,” said Pocket league CEO and founder Karan Khairajani.
Even though Esports has been in India for quite some time now, the year 2019 has seen remarkable traction. Currently, India is seen to be really pushing aggressively to make an impact in the gaming section; be it through ESL One DOTA2 or FIFA 2019 (organised by game development institution Backstage Pass).
In addition to that Backstage Pass CEO Surya P shared, “Esports in India has been around for a few years, but since 2019 there has been a massive growth as it gained popularity and support, such that well-known companies and gaming giants are holding leagues and tournaments. Not just that, but with more prize money and acceptance, the esports is gaining popularity, attracting international teams to participate in the tournaments held in India. We have seen Indian gamers not only participating in international platforms but also winning sports medals.”
In the global gaming market, India might seem like a fledgeling bird but the recent growth spurt seems to indicate that it has taken flight already, all poised to go neck-to-neck with bigger players in the years ahead.
