“With 5G Becoming A Reality In India, Gaming Is Entering A New Phase Of Evolution”
The growing digital culture, affordability of gaming devices and an ever-growing community of gamers have enabled the Indian gaming industry to achieve remarkable growth. Indian gaming sector has a lot of potential hence market players believe that it can surpass many matured markets like USA, China and Japan in the years to come. Several leading gaming brands are playing a big role in popularizing Esports in India. There has been a rapid increase in the number of successful Esports tournaments, viewership and gaming professionals in recent years. The scenario has completely changed now and all such factors are pushing the Indian gaming scenario to a new level.
Growth of India’s Gaming Market in 2023
In the recent years, Indian gaming sector has witnessed a significant growth which has raised the expectations of all stakeholders. Considering the growth in CY 2023, the expectations are quite high. Putting across the views about growth expectations, Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek said, “Gaming industry in India is set to witness rapid growth in the coming years, driven by massive adoption of smartphones as well as the accessibility to faster and cheaper data networks. Of the 840 million Internet users in the country, majority are young tech-savvy generation, who is the best target group for gaming. Reports suggest that around 50% of the Internet users in India play games currently, and this number is expected to grow to 657 million in 2025. Meanwhile a KPMG report reveals that online gaming market in India is expected to more than double during 2021-25, from Rs.136 billion to Rs.290 billion.”
He further added, “Also, the latest Lumikai State of India Gaming Report finds that Indian gaming user base contributed to 15 billion downloads in FY22, making India the largest consumer of mobile games globally, with 17% share. A main driver for this is also the new age technologies that are leading to better and more immersive experiences. At MediaTek we make gaming technology for the 5G era. The new MediaTek HyperEngine 2.0 with its latest new features speeds up game load times, creates reliable, low-latency connections by managing multiple networks, intelligently manages resources for high FPS, longer battery life, and tools that improve in-game image quality.”
Factors Going to Positively Impact Gaming Market in 2023
The Indian gaming industry has seen a tremendous growth in 2023 and is tipped to maintain its recent growth momentum in 2023. There are certain factors that will accelerate the growth in new year. Talking to DT about the growth, Anku Jain commented, “As mentioned above, the availability of affordable smartphones and cheaper data networks will continue to impact the industry. This will also lead to massive adoption of the latest gaming trends like cloud gaming, eSports and paid gaming. With 5G becoming a reality in India, gaming is entering a new phase of evolution driven by these trends and supported by the super-fast low-latency 5G networks. Technology also acts as a major driving force, enabling seamless and lag-free gaming experience on all networks, 4G or 5G. Over the past few years, the processors have undergone rapid evolution to deliver enhanced performance to cater to the emerging needs of the users. Advancements in AI have led to the development of smartphone cores that are much more energy efficient and capable of optimizing resources even in extremely demanding gaming scenarios. MediaTek has built a dedicated HyperEngine technology that now comes with several advancements to enable greater power efficiency in high frame-rate gaming.”
Awareness among Gamers at it's Best
Professional as well as aspiring gamers like buying high performing mobile handset. On this aspect, Anku said, “Hardware is an integral component influencing gaming adoption. In India we have seen increased awareness among smartphone buyers about the hardware and their specs that impact the gaming performance of their devices. We build the solutions based on these understanding and have come up with several innovations to tap the gaming industry in India. The MediaTek Helio series of chipsets, for example, are built with gaming users in mind. The recently launched MediaTek Helio G99, built on the TSMC 6nm production process, is designed to bring the best gaming performance to 4G smartphones. Also, MediaTek’s entire line-up of Dimensity 5G series of chipsets feature the advanced gaming enhancements powered by latest processor technologies. At the core of these capabilities is MediaTek’s HyperEngine technology that enables superior, lag-free gaming experience while ensuring maximum power savings. MediaTek is committed to democratize these technologies, bringing them to all categories of devices so that the entire community benefit from these advancements.”
Challenges Upsetting The Growth
The Indian gaming sector has huge potential and the recent growth has definitely raised the eyebrows of global gaming brands. However, there are still some challenges that lie ahead that are affecting the growth to an extent. Speaking on the challenges for this market, Anku said, “According to an EY-All India Gaming Federation (AIGF) report on Online gaming in India the Indian online gaming sector is expected to reach $2 billion by 2023 in terms of rake fees earned. India is amongst the world’s fastest-growing gaming markets, and some of the key areas that need to be addressed include the need for right talent especially with new-age technologies being adopted like metaverse that requires AR, VR and 3D, know-how and capabilities. The second being the need for a policy frameworks and digital infrastructure in order to effectively regulate the eco-system.”
