The online gaming market has changed exponentially in the last decade and changing technology and infrastructure has enabled more availability and accessibility to a larger mass. Multiple factors have affected the online gaming sector, and now, there are 120 million online gamers involved with high market value. The low-cost smartphones amongst the urban and rural population have played an important role in increasing market volume. With that, the cost of data has also decreased exponentially, making it accessible to people with different economic status at the cheapest cost.
Growth
There are various factors that has initiated the exponential growth of online gaming in India, like:
- Low-cost smartphones
- Lower cost of data
- New affordable technologies
- Localised games
- Digital payment users on the rise
- Growing local developer ecosystem
- Multiplayer games, a great way of social interaction
Indian gaming sector
The statistics recorded 365 million online gamers in India in the financial year 2020 and this number is estimated to reach 510 million by the fiscal year 2022. Between 2016 to 2018, India ranked the highest in terms of the growth in online game downloads on app stores with a growth rate of 165 percent. At present, there are 275 registered companies developing games in India, whereas, there were only 25 companies developing games with a limited number of career trajectories in 2010.
Youth
The majority of the Indian population is below the age of 25. And the accessibility to smartphones and the internet has attracted the youth population towards online gaming. And the larger involvement of youth has led to a surprising expansion.
The youth is generally engaged with online gaming for two reasons, which are stress reliving and social interaction. Including that, there are other scientifically-proven psychological benefits of online gaming including brain sharpening, increase in reaction time, body coordination, and improved attention.
Job Opportunities
Under the self-reliance mission of the government, The Union Ministry seeks to support the students in the field of online gaming, to generate employment opportunities for them. A National level Hackathon is likely to be organized on 'online games' for showcasing student's talent.
Also, with the growing market, job opportunities are rising. With more than 200 startups, there are almost 23,000 gaming jobs openings for every individual with skills. There is an abundance of jobs for programmers, designers, testers, narrative designers, game animators, audio engineers, or professional gamers or reviewer with high packages.
The gaming industry is also facilitating the gaming YouTubers to make money through streaming their games online. Several gamers make money through online streaming platforms like youtube. Many other YouTubers have made it a career that pays them well. The massive rise in online gaming tournaments can also be seen.
Economy
Several foreign gaming companies from across the world including Ubisoft, Youzu Interactive, StomStidop, and Tencent are investing in India's online gaming sector, seeing India's growing userbase, and market opportunities.
The Indian Gaming sector reported growing 41% annually due to the growth of digital infrastructure and a substantial rise in quality and engaging gaming content. While the world is dealing with the slow economy during the world pandemic, the gaming industry in India has witnessed a growth of 21%, with an increasing userbase.
Regulations
The Indian laws forbid gambling activities where a person may win or lose merely by the occurrence of an uncertain event or luck(Public Gambling Act, 1867). A license must be obtained to offer online games, and that too, for the games incorporating efforts and skills. Recently, Tamil Nadu has banned online gaming and gambling in the state, following Andra Pradesh and Telangana.
Image source: Google images