The gaming industry is expected to reach new heights with more than 300million gamers by 2021 engaged in mobile games and fantasy sports. This means exciting growth opportunities for youth as new career avenues open up for game streamers, professional e-sports players and game developers
Over 50 percent of gamers in India are under 24 years, and are increasing their spend on the latest games in anvil, said a report by digital entertainment firm JetSynthesys.
The gaming community in India consists of about 200 million users, which will increase to 300 million gamers by 2021.
JetSynthesys undertook a study of over 1,100 millennials across metros and Tier 1 cities to understand gaming preferences across mobile, console, PC and other new forms of gaming like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).
The ‘Millenials Gaming Habit’ report says that young gamers are also beginning to spend money on games. The most preferred price point for Indian gamers is less Rs 500. Around 15 percent of gamers spend anywhere between Rs 1000 and Rs 3000 on games, and six percent spend anywhere between Rs 3000 and Rs 10,000.
"Today we see a convergence of multiple forms of entertainment across video streaming, online gaming and social media. With the gaming industry entering an inflection phase, these formats will contribute to the creation of new platforms for engagement," said Rajan Navani, vice chairman and MD, JetSynthesys.
"Moreover, the gaming industry is expected to reach new heights with more than 300 million gamers to be engaged with mobile games and fantasy sports by 2021. This means exciting growth opportunities for the youth as new career avenues open up for game streamers, professional e-sports players and game developers," Navani added.
At present there are 735 million internet users in India .
According to the report, gamers are also experimenting with multiple formats. Pokemon Go was the first AR game that sent India's youth racing to grab Pokemon's at Pokestops. The study revealed that the Personal Computer (PC) as the second most used gaming platform after mobile games. new areas where millennials have begun experimenting with gaming with VR engaging five percent and AR at three percent of the gamers.
On the mobile platform, Indian millennials have developed a taste for social gameplay from simple board games like Ludo, to action games like Mini-Militia or to more mature games like PUBG.
The broad categories of games that interest players are action, preferred by 23 percent of the gamers, followed by strategy games which are played by 16 percent, and sports and racing games that engage 15 percent of the gamers.
The study also revealed that over 57 percent of players ideally want to keep a game for over 3 months on their phones after downloading it and for 44 percent of the players, the intent is to keep a new game on the phone for over 6 months, showing millennials make a conscious choice in deciding which content to engage with.
