Among the businesses clocking rapid growth in India, the gaming industry has come in for some focus, following a report by KPMG. The report predicts that the gaming industry may clock a revenue of Rs 11,900 crore by the year 2023 and will grow at a decent 22% y-o-y. KPMG made the report along with the Indian Federation of Sports Gaming.
The report confirms that the largest number of people use their mobile phones for playing games at 85%, leaving just around 11% for those who use PCs or tablets.
KPMG has gone on to identify the factors contributing to this high growth in the segment: affordable smartphones, better penetration and data available to users at low costs. Interestingly, there were 20 million gamers and 25 million game developing companies till 2010, but now, this figure has ballooned to 250 million. And referring to the genres, puzzle action and adventure are being mentioned as the most preferred ones.
Delving deeper, the KPMG report talks about the fantasy gaming segment within this industry and this segment too has witnessed a phenomenal growth to some 50 million people now playing from just 2 million 3 years back. Dream 11, MyTeam11, 11Wickets, StarPick and Fantain are reportedly the key players in the fantasy gaming segment. Cricket is one sport that is almost a religion in the country and its popularity among all age groups ensure the game developers never run out of gaming enthusiasts to sign up and play their games, whether the paid version or the free one.
The fantasy gaming segment alone is expected to have 100 million people playing, with the company Dream 11 alone enjoying a base of 50 million.
Another interesting factor brought out through this report by KPMG is that there has been certain clarity on the legality of these online games with even courts intervening and pointing out that it does not amount to gambling. This, plus the other factor that the very interest in sports in the country has been kindled in the mushrooming of sports leagues in games like football, kabaddi, badminton and so on have contributed to the online gaming industry becoming popular among the Indian youth.