With a population of over 1.3 billion people, India is a rapidly growing market for the online gaming industry. Although people’s interest in gaming has increased significantly in the last few years, the online gaming industry is still quite an unexplored area in India.
According to reports, the online gaming industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40%, to $2.8 billion by 2022 from $1.1 billion in 2019. Largely driven by the growth of digital infrastructure and the increase in engaging gaming content, the online gaming industry in India, the second-largest market in the world by app downloads, is expected to at least double in investment and revenue in the next 1-2 years.
The three key segments of online gaming are: real money gaming (RMG), mobile-centric/casual gaming, and e-sports. RMG includes games like rummy, poker and daily fantasy sports. At present, mobile gaming has taken the lead by gaining around 85% share of the online gaming market in India.
In the past, no one would have considered mobile devices as a platform for games, especially online games. However, gaming is now more about accessibility and comfort, and smartphones are the go-to gaming devices. Both the Play Store and the App Store are filled with gaming apps, which include some of the most downloaded apps. All you need is a smartphone and a stable internet connection and gaming skills to enjoy these games.
Real money gaming is witnessing tremendous growth and profitability, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 40% from 2020−22. Key trends in this segment include growing popularity of games such as rummy, poker, and fantasy sports. Rummy, poker, and fantasy sports have all been declared games of skill by the court. This declaration will lead to greater adoption by new users.
Talking about the fantasy sports segment of RMG, its landscape in India has seen a significant transformation as the number of fantasy sports operators has increased by sevenfold over the last 3-4 years, and the number of users has grown by over 25 times in the same period. Engagement, as measured by the time spent by users, on various platforms also increased by 21% during the same time.
Fantasy cricket platforms have witnessed a tremendous increase in their daily user base as well as time spent on them by users. Fantasy sports applications such as Howzat provide contests based on a huge number of tournaments and matches from across the globe. They provide you with the most trusted fantasy gaming experience and the biggest welcome bonuses. You can download a fantasy cricket app, register easily and play anytime, anywhere.
The lockdown in 2020 pushed the growth of online gaming further as more users found themselves engaged on gaming platforms to kill time and have entertainment. However, fantasy sports gaming platforms saw a dip in their revenue during that period as the IPL and other sporting events were canceled or postponed. Currently as sports and matches are starting to happen all across the globe, the revenue levels are back on track and are on the rise.
Thus, online gaming is growing in popularity in the country and the Indian online gaming industry is growing at an exponential rate year on year. While rummy, poker, and other card games used to dominate the RMG segment before 2016-17, fantasy sports have emerged as a major competition for these games in the last 2-3 years and have helped increase the revenue of the segment as a whole.
