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Amid Covid19 outbreak: Online gaming platforms growth rate may surpass expected 2020 business mark

Amidst nationwide lockdown due to the threat of Covid19, folks around the world are spending most of their time inside homes playing video games in order to deal with the boredom induced by the curfew.Given the scenario, online gaming companies in India witnessed a rise in the number of users flooding their platforms along with a surge in the number of hours Indian users spend playing games online.

As the screen time is going through the roof, online gaming industry is witnessing accelerated growth across the globe. Especially platforms which are having a variety of gaming options have seen an upward trend.

For example, WinZO which is a vernacular social gaming platform hosting multiple games has witnessed a spike of 30 per cent in tier-1 traffic during the earlier days. WinZO was previously a T2-T5 focused product (with 12 regional languages on its platform) whereas currently they are organically attracting players from T1 India despite the fact that product has not been marketed to the audiences this way. Notably, there are substantial amounts of users coming from Hindi speaking belt (UP, Bihar, MP, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh)

Here are the growth statistics that WinZo have released on their platform (half month through lockdown) so far:

The game plays by women on the platform has grown 1.5x especially for games like candy crush and cooking competition games.
Activity on the social features of the app such as video and audio usage during gameplay has also doubled.
Similarly, Vs-Mode on our app has observed a 35 per cent spike considering people are playing with their friends online amid the lockdown.
Multiplayer games like- Carrom, Ludo, and Battle Royal, where people are playing these games in private modes (Vs-Mode, private tournaments) with their friends and family online- the game play between friends has gone up by 2 times, earlier people played with strangers more- to find and connect with more people outside their circles.
We have observed a surge in casual games like- Bubble Shooter, Knife Up, Subway Surfer on a platform especially as female audiences (1.5x) are picking on games.
Our 60 per cent TG is 18 to 25, mostly males. However, amid the lockdown, an increase in users from the age group of 25 to 35 is noticed with a marginal increase of female traffic as well.
Now the audience are piercing from the deeper parts of India playing from low-end devices and 20 per cent making their first digital media and entertainment payment on WinZO.

Pocket League’s co-founder Karan Khairajani

Due to the nationwide lockdown, people have more time on their hands and they are quenching their thrill with a variety of gaming content which has led gaming platforms grow by leaps and bounds over the past week. Hyper casual gaming platform Pocket League has also “seen an uptick in the number of organic installs and also the average time spent per day in our app. An interesting thing on Pocket League that we have seen over the past two weeks is that each player is trying out almost all the games on the platform (we currently have seven games),” said Firescore Interactive co-founder and Pocket League’s co-founder Karan Khairajani.

Multiple games with diversity of content is attracting more users as players are spoilt for choice. Not only that, the nationwide lockdown has witnessed an increase in hours spent by users as Khairajani said, “Generally we see that the majority of activity is happening post office hours, but nowadays, all contests are getting filled up throughout the whole day. From a user acquisition perspective, we are seeing lower CPIs as well.”

Other platforms like Paytm First Games, 9stacks, Adda52 and Hello Play have witnessed an uptick in downloads reportedly even during lockdown . FICCI EY report for the M&E sector suggests that the online gaming segment grew 40 per cent in 2019 to reach Rs. 65 billion and is expected to reach Rs187 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 43 per cent but the nationwide lockdown seems will push to achieve the expected numbers earlier.

Mainline esports tournament company raises $6.8M Series A funding to grow operations and expand technology platform

Mainline, an esports tournament software and management company, announced it raised a $6.8 million Series A funding round led by Work America Capital, alongside investments from individual investors in professional sports and other strategic backers. Mainline will use the funds to enhance its esports tournament software technology platform; increase its marketing presence; hire development, marketing and sales talent; and expand its event management customer base to additional major brands.

“The world of esports and gaming is exploding; however, continuity in tournament organization is lacking, keeping the sport from really taking off in other viable and exciting markets. Mainline gives brands the tools they need to run powerful esports programs that will evolve the quickly maturing industry to the benefit of players, students and the greater esports ecosystem,” said Mainline chief executive officer Chris Buckner.

Mainline’s licensed, white-labeled tournament platform specialises in hosting and enabling entities to manage, monetize and market their esports programs.It has now grown beyond collegiate esports to run thousands of online tournaments and live events for some of the biggest brands and gaming organisations in the world, including Dreamhack, PUBG Corp, and Clutch Gaming. Mainline also played a core role with ESPN on their inaugural Collegiate Esports Championship earlier this year.

“As with any industry that takes off like a rocket, problems arise that must be solved through innovation. Mainline is standardizing, organizing and optimizing the esports industry, paving the way for more players, more teams, more money and bigger, better tournaments,” said Work America Capital managing partner Mark Toon.

Mainline’s executives hail from NRG Esports, the Professional Esports Association, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Tespa, ESL, Dreamhack, ESEA, ELEAGUE, Blizzard and Twitch. Current partners and integrations include ESPN, Twitch and more.

Mainline’s Mandate to Streamline Esports Tournaments

“The strategic vision of Mainline puts them in the driver’s seat with a consistent platform across amateur, collegiate and professional competitions. Given Mainline’s partnerships and customers, they have paved a way to grow quickly across all sports and into other markets.We are excited to dedicate our time, resources and capital to the company,” said Toon.

Globally, esports is booming as total industry revenue for 2019 is on track to hit $1.1 billion worldwide. As well, viewership for esports has increased from 335 million to 454 million total audience since 2017.Collegiate esports is experiencing rapid growth. The largest collegiate esports tournament organiser Tespa has a membership of 850 schools, nearly 20,000 players and awarded more than $3 million in winnings.

Kajal Aggarwal becomes the face of ‘KhelPlay Rummy’

KhelPlay Rummy – the online gaming platform for rummy, is bringing notable actress Kajal Aggarwal to join hands with them to become the face of the brand.

Kajal symbolises both fun and success, making her the right choice to showcase KhelPlay Rummy’s vision. Such attitude and traits have tremendous synergy with rummy playing audience who have the passion to make it big. These synergies between Kajal and KhelPlay Rummy and the former’s interest in the game of rummy makes this the right combination.

Talking about this association, Khel Group head of marketing Chaitanya Salunke, said, “We are excited to have Kajal as the face of the brand as this will go a long way in improving the awareness of our brand and the game overall. Moreover, this affiliation will also help the people relate more with rummy and re-emphasise the fact that rummy is a skill-based game which offers fun & thrill at the same time. We are the rummy pioneers in India and look forward to many more users on KhelPlay Rummy’s thrilling platform.”

Kajal Aggarwal, an avid rummy player, whose thoughts and objectives resonate with KhelPlay Rummy’s ideology makes her an ideal pick for KPR to showcase their foresight in the arena of online gaming. Speaking about the move on becoming the face of KhelPlay Rummy, Kajal said, “I, like any other Indian has been playing rummy recreationally for a while now. I am happy to officially be a part of KhelPlay Rummy who is one of the leaders in the online rummy space in India.”

She further added, “KPR’s initiative to bring about the confluence of rummy in the digital world is what the country needs now to be a part of the online gaming platform. It’s amazing to see the growing passion for rummy in India and KPR’s initiative to drive the generation via digital platforms to play the game.”

India’s online gaming industry is reported to generate a revenue of INR 11,900 cr by 2023 and is currently spurring at 22 per cent KPMG report. To boost this further, KhelPlay Rummy has a database of 30 lakh users and continuously strives to engage their players and retain them by having an array of 10, 13, 21 and 27 cards rummy like pool, points, and deals. KPR actively enables their users to break in the online sports gaming and play responsibly with real money.

The thought behind the platform of KhelPlay Rummy is driven by the idea of customization and focusing on the target audience being the people who have access to data and smartphone/computer. Salunke also touched upon the fact that, “Engagement and responsible gaming are two of the most important attributes of an online rummy game. KPR has been ensuring both with tailored offers and tournaments with safe payment gateways. It has a large line- up of tournaments that provide players with opportunities to win and connect with other players. The offers run by the platform are crafted in a manner that best suit a player’s requirements.”

Rummy aficionados often look for gaming websites that offer rummy variants under one platform, complete security for financial transactions and profile information, and access to card games for free and cash. All these benefits can be found on KhelPlay Rummy’s website and app for rummy enthusiasts. If you like to play rummy, then you should definitely register on KhelPlay, as the website offers bonus to players, fair-play, games 24×7, choice of tourneys, and a lot more.