Development of the Indian market in the post-epidemic era

India is the fifth largest mobile game market in the world. Like most countries, the main customer group of mobile games in India is mainly men between the ages of 18 and 24. However, the advertising technology company InMobi conducted a survey on mobile games in India in 2021 and found that 60% of people aged 45 to 54 began to play mobile games. The study said that about 45% of Indian gamers started playing mobile games during the epidemic lockdown.

InMobi interviewed and collected data from more than 200 million Indian users, and sorted out that Generation Z prefers casual games/action arcade games, while Generation Y and X prefer action games and desktop/card games. More than 80% of Indians are loyal players and play mobile games every day. Most Indian players install an average of 3 games on their phones. About 74% of players will use advertising to promote the game process, and 26% of players will spend money to continue the game.

The Indian market has 15% of global game traffic and is expected to grow 10 times in the next five years. According to Maple Capital Advisors, investments in the sector have exceeded $500 million in the past six months, surpassing the investments in the past five years and exceeding all expectations. The report states that in India, the gaming industry is at an inflection point and is now seeing greater investment and consumer traction. The report states that healthy consumer traction (15% of global traffic) is based on increased awareness and engagement, and has the potential to accelerate.

Maple Capital also expects improved regulatory coverage or greater judicial transparency, especially in the real money sector. Interestingly, the report shows that consumer visits to online gaming sites and apps increased by 24% last year, and user engagement increased threefold. At the same time, by 2020, online gaming traffic increased by 30%, and mobile game downloads also reached a peak of 197 million.

It is estimated that more than 745 million users play online real money games in India. The exact number will increase depending on the popularity of the Internet and electronic products in India, but the industry will still be affected by the inconsistency of federal laws in India. For example, Andhra Pradesh has banned all real money games and taken unprecedented preventive measures. Tamil Nadu has declared rummy and poker as gambling under state law. Meghalaya is considering licensing all games, and Karnataka may soon amend its laws to plan online games. Such diverse laws are a challenge for game companies, which will make the industry have no unified standards to follow.

In India, smartphones are not popular enough, but it has become the fifth largest mobile game market in the world. In the future market, there are unlimited business opportunities. With the increase in the number of real money game users and the relaxation of laws on board games, India's future online entertainment market is full of business opportunities.