With the mobile internet revolution putting a smartphone in millions of pockets and bringing connectivity to homes at throwaway rates, one of the greatest beneficiaries has been gaming platforms and companies. Gaming is already big business in India, reports show, and the forecast for the next five years predicts the market size to shoot past Rs 11,000 crore.
A recent report from KPMG pegs the market size of the gaming sector in India at a whopping Rs 4,380 crore in 2018 and predicts this to grow to over Rs 5,540 crore by the end of 2019. The entire sector is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.1 per cent over the next five years to reach Rs 11,880 crore by 2023.
While the high cost of hi-tech gaming consoles are preventing large-scale adoption in India, mobile gaming is a different story. “From a meagre contribution of 18 per cent in 2012, mobile gaming comprised 46 per cent of the global gaming revenue in 2017,” noted KPMG, going on to add that in India mobile gaming comprises “89 per cent of all gaming revenue”.
“Mobile gaming,” it said, “dominates other devices -- both in terms of revenue and number of gamers -- and this is not expected to change going forward.”What ails India’s market in particular, however, is the tendency of users to not pay as much as their global peers. Compared to smaller emerging economies like Vietnam and Indonesia, the average revenue per user (ARPU) for India is miniscule at USD 2 for mobile and USD 8 for consoles and laptops. In contrast Vietnam has a USD 11 ARPU for mobile, while Indonesia boasts USD 12.
What is clicking, however, are card based games. This genre alone is estimated to be growing at upwards of 50 per cent year on year and three versions of teen patti and one version of the popular rummy are the top grossing games in the Google Play Store.
“Card games have been part of the India tradition for generations, and the familiarity with the genre has translated into the massive popularity of online card games,” notes Dhananjai Hari, vice president marketing, Mad Over Poker. “However, at present, the real money online gaming market in India does not have clear guidelines… which is impacting capital flow,” he added.