According to a report by Deloitte India, the online gaming industry will likely touch the $2.8 billion mark by 2022. The industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate(CAGR) of 40%. This would pull up the industry from the 1.9 billion U.S dollars stage in 2019 to the expected in 2022.
Online gaming during the pandemic
The sudden spurt in online gaming has been largely attributed in the report to the pandemic and the accompanying restrictions. Evidently, people started moving towards the online arenas in light of the lack of other media of entertainment. While this growth in itself should increase the share of gaming in the entertainment world by 4-5%.
The report reveals that the pandemic restrictions lead to a 21% increase in time spent of gaming apps. The subscriber base also crossed the 300 million mark in India in the initial months of the pandemic. This is also because of a direct impact of the growth of internet coverage in India.
While it may be that once covid comes under control and the world truly opens up, the growth is bound to get leveled, some increase will definitely stay on.
India is among the top 5 mobile gaming markets in the world. The nation forms 13% of the total global share in mobile gaming, with Deloitte expecting nearly 40 million more to join within the next 2 years.
World over, the gaming sector is nearly 4 four times the box office revenues, but in India, it is around half. This shows a huge scope for growth in the sector in the coming years with increased acceptance to technology and change.
Impact of the pandemic
The report also talked about how the pandemic had fast-tracked the acceptance of new technologies in fields such as medicine and healthcare. Indians, just like the world, have been constantly adapting to the changes. Be it switching from gully cricket to fantasy cricket, or accepting online therapy.
Apart from Indian gamers showing interest in online gaming, recently, big studios and even marketplaces like Epic Games, have started taking the Indian customer seriously and returning the favour. Not just the acceptance of the Indian rupee on international stores like Epic, but also big-ticket gaming releases.