The New Pastime: Indians Spend More Time Playing Mobile Games Than Watching Prime Time TV, Streaming Videos

Indians, on an average, are spending more time on mobile games than video streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and others, reports Times of India.

According to the Mobile Marketing Association’s “Power of Mobile Gaming in India” report, Indians spend over an hour playing game on an average daily as opposed to 45 minutes on video streaming services.

Further, data shows that in India three out of four gamers play at least two times a day. "With over 250 million mobile gamers, India is one of the top five gaming countries, globally," the report said. Further, gaming has come at the expense of time Indians spend on prime-time television. Most gamers play between the 7 pm to 12 am slot.

India’s gaming industry started growing in 2016, after the release of augmented reality experience games like Pokemon Go entered smartphone gaming industry. In 2018, the Indian gaming community embraced multiplayer games like the Players Unknown Battlegrounds (PUBG) with open arms. PUBG aside, classic board games like the Ludo King is another hit in India.

Founder CEO, Dhruva Interactive and Chair, India Game Developers Conference advisory committee, Rajesh Rao says the boom for such games come from smaller cities while adding games like Ludo King appeal to an audience of all age groups and has taken gaming from the genre of ‘niche’ entertainment to a mainstream genre.

“Gaming in India has been generally about young and tech-savvy people, but now it is a mass market phenomenon,” he said.

There is no surprise the mobile gaming industry is catching investors eyes. According to data from Venture Intelligence, in 2018, there was a private investment of 116 million dollars in the new age gaming startups against seven million dollars of funds in the sector in 2016.