There is so much potential in the Indian gaming market as young gamers are adopting eSports as a profession which is making it a one of the fastest growing industry. In line with this growth, Rishi Padhi, Senior Research Specialist, Gartner said, “Since the onset of the pandemic, India has seen two successive years of strong double-digit growth of end user spending in consumer laptops. This reflects a shift in consumer interest towards higher end PCs and Gaming Notebooks. On the supply side, major vendors have introduced several gaming variants in the market and have reported a rise in average selling price in their product sales.”
He further added, “Over the next year, demand for gaming hardware will continue to grow as there is still a lot of unfulfilled demand due to component constraints in 2021 which limited product quantities available. This will continue to ease out over 2022 and we will see greater unit sales in the segment. While India is still very much a smartphone-first gaming market, there is a lot of potential for gaming PCs as users look for more immersive experiences and greater access to AAA game titles. With the growing base of gaming enthusiasts, there is strong indication of rising replacement demand within existing smartphone gamers who choose to upgrade and invest in better hardware.”
Adoption Towards eSports
“Over the last couple of years, even without physical events due to shelter-in-place norms, there has been a greater interest among people towards interest in competitive gaming such as esports and a growth in viewership of dedicated game streaming channels on social media. However, there are still limitations for demand generated from this segment in India. While demographics are expanding for gaming enthusiasts in general, most of the audience for esports and gaming events in India is still under the age of 25 and an even smaller portion view this as a dedicated career versus a hobby,” added by Rishi.
Gamers and Creators Fuelling Demand for Gaming Machine
Gaming PCs are attractive to not only Gamers but also content creators and people in the creative field who enjoy the versatility that gaming PCs offer as dedicated hardware that can run multiple heavy applications requiring strong graphical processing. “In India, there has been a significant rise of creators and streamers on social media, including that of dedicated gaming related channels especially with rise in new age content sharing platforms,” further added by Rishi.
“But most of that demand will only come from dedicated creators who see a tangible benefit in the investment over the earnings they make on their respective platforms. And while gaming enthusiasts have a desire to stay updated on the hardware side of gaming, the demand for replacement for creators is a lot less as they don’t require frequent upgrades to do their jobs. Hence the demand from creators will continue to drive sales as more dedicated creators continue invest in hardware, but most of the replacement demand for gaming PCs within India will primarily be driven by dedicated gaming enthusiasts who continue to seek better hardware upgrades,” concluded by Rishi.
