-Siddhi Thangaokar(Class of 2020, IBS Hyderabad)
Amidst the covid-19 crisis several countries in the world resorted to lockdown in order to flatten the curve, which resulted in millions of people confining to home. The effect to this as we all see economy is shrinking and is heading towards recession.
But one industry which is expanding and is booming evidently is Gaming industry. Revenues of many such gaming companies have increased amidst this pandemic. With the practice of social distancing and reduction of business activity, gaming offers a new way of social interaction and keeping people occupied and helping them to stay home. That’s why in year 2020 after the lockdown was announced more people are gravitating towards gaming.
According to KPMG reports, Indian gaming industry in 2016 was $29 million and now by 2021 it is expected to reach to $1 billion. Reports also found during second week of February 2020, and 3rd week of March, 2020, visits to online gaming apps and websites increased by 24 %, and engagement, as measured through time spent on gaming apps or sites, increased by 21% during the same time period. . In the UK physical game sales increased by 218.2% week-on-week
Most of the online games do not require any monetary transaction to sign up, however, most of the revenue comes through subscriptions, in app purchases, pay per download and in app advertising. Consumers are buying fewer games today but spending more time on games purchased. Pubg (Player’s Unknown Battleground) was the most played game in India during the lockdown. Around 22 lakh people played pubg last month. Mine-craft took the second spot with 8.2 lakh players. Other popular online games on the list include League of Legends, Counter-Strike, fortnight, World of Warcraft and Clash of Clans; etc.
The massive interest in gaming have accelerated shift towards other sources like mobile gaming and cloud based gaming. Thanks to technology and modern electronics, currently, mobile gaming is driving strong engagement and high growth rates. According to statistics Mobile based gaming in India is estimated to reach 450 million USD by year 2022, however with lockdown it can gain more users
Cloud gaming is a type of online gaming in which there are two main types that is, one which is based on streaming video and the other one based on file streaming. This is comparatively new way of gaming that offers the player combined play across multiple devices. The main advantage of cloud gaming is that the company can upgrade the games without having to concern about the capabilities of user’s computers. The trend also suggests that Indian gaming is more multiplayer focused.
Like many industries who tried to help in this crisis by donation and charities even gaming industry supported community initiative in order to mitigate the effects of pandemic. Presently, there are over 400 gaming start-ups in India and with more than 500 million smartphone users as per December 2019, leading to the mobile gaming industry with an 85% share of online gaming in India.
Below link shows the Global gaming market distribution :
https://newzoo.com/wpcontent/uploads/2020/05/Newzoo_Games_Market_Revenues_2020.png
Avijit Karmakar
want to know more about this cell. And like to participate with you guys.
Prayaas_IBS
Thank you Avijit Karmakar, could you please mail to aakashsamanta96@gmail.com with your details.