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Online gaming only segment to exceed expected growth at 43% YoY: Zupee exec

Things are looking up for India’s online gaming industry as it works its way towards its trillion-dollar digital economy dream by 2025, according to an executive at Zupee, an online skill-based games and gamification platform.
India a big hub of gaming
The coronavirus pandemic may have brought the world to a standstill, but it’s also ushered in a new type of market as consumers—especially in a mobile-first market like India—have shifted towards digital environments for new experiences as they go about their daily activities and socialization.According to Zupee Chief Corporate Affairs & Policy Officer Dr. Subi Chaturvedi, online gaming and digital media were the only segments that registered considerable growth in 2019-2020. And of these two, “online gaming is the only segment that exceeded the expected growth, standing at a 43% YoY.”“Higher data consumption, cheapest prices for data and access, 700m people online, consistently lowering prices of smartphone, when clubbed with renewable power and local language content, makes India a big hub of gaming. Hence, this is where the next decade of online gaming comes in,” Dr. Chaturvedi said.
Online gaming “is not a fad that will disappear sometime soon,” according to the Zupee executive. As an ENV Media report pointed out, more than half of India’s estimated 760 million internet users play online games via their mobile devices at this point, making the country the second largest mobile gaming market in the world.
Rural internet users drive India’s market growth
Internet service providers in the country report 742.19 million mobile device users, with a 55-45 urban to rural ratio. However, rural internet users are already closing this gap as it drives the market growth, according to an analysis by SevenJackpots, an online comparison site for casinos in India.“Rural users and expanding demographics sustain the segment growth—middle-aged and female gamers are all on the rise. Around half of all Indian 11-year-olds are also reported to have their own smartphone, with rural families increasingly able to provide smartphones to their kids,” the report noted.
Meanwhile, the pandemic has also pushed India to the top of the global list in terms of mobile game download rankings with an estimated 7.3 billion game installs or about 17% market share in total worldwide volume. The explosion of online gaming’s popularity can be attributed to several factors; the mass availability of low-cost mobile devices, complemented by the cheap data packages, created the perfect condition for the online gaming segment to thrive and succeed as it moves towards achieving what Dr. Chaturvedi describes as “a trillion-dollar digital economy” soon.
“The COVID-19 pandemic was an unexpected event for all. Yet, it turned into a factor that pushed most digital trends in the same direction they had already taken,” according to ENV Media analysts. “Nowadays, the former family primetime hours are often dedicated to gaming, and this kind of fragmented, customizable, and largely free gaming experience is the new preferred pastime for many Indians.”

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