In mobile gaming terms, India already stands as the second largest in terms of users in the world. As we previously reported, mobile gamers account for 91% of online players in India according to Newzoo statistics. As commented on by an APB Live article, India is expected to become one of the world’s leading markets for gaming overall. It would have a long way to go as India does not yet crack the top-ten markets in terms of revenue according to Newzoo. However, given rapid smartphone adoption and official government policy, this may change soon.

According to the APB Live article, one of the major changes is the perspective shift of the viability of a gaming career path. “Earlier the gaming industry was not seen as a career-centric industry but with the pace of transformations occurring in the gaming sector, there is an increase in new Indian talent entering the gaming business that views game development as a viable career path.” Digitalisation, smartphone adoption and better access to internet and telecommunications are all key aspects of growth in the Indian market.

Economic self-reliance

India’s growing economy and the attitude towards it could be partially attributed to the Indian government’s unofficial policy of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”. The idea of Indian economic self-reliance is a growing one in Asia that has fuelled strong government legislation in nations such as China. But the Atmanirbhar Bharat policy was strongly influenced by the Coronavirus pandemic and the necessity of the Indian economy’s recovery from it. With the Indian government announcing financial support to aid the country’s recovery from the pandemic, this sort of government attitude will likely reflect a focus on domestic growth that would affect the gaming industry broadly.

The influence of the Coronavirus pandemic can also be felt, according to the APB Live article, in the adoption of smartphones and mobile gaming. “Furthermore, owing to the increased adoption of smartphones, mobile gaming has become a new trend. And this global penetration of smartphones is attributable primarily to the pandemic, which also increased the number of network operators offering reasonably priced data plans to make mobile gaming more accessible.” With mobile gaming bypassing the need for consoles or personal computers, combining telecommunications and internet access as well, it’s likely that gaming on your smartphone will become the preferred way to play in India as it is in China.

Both domestically and abroad anticipation is high for what the Indian market may achieve in future. Tamasha Co-founder Saurabh Gupta was quoted in the aforementioned Newzoo report as saying “In India, the gaming industry is yet to cross over the nascent stage and a lot of action is yet to happen.”