<b>Data Tracker:</b> Click, shoot and play

The gaming industry is tough to keep up with, especially for those that are neither gamers nor game builders. An extremely closed community, gamers across the world have proved to be difficult to categorise; not for lack of trying by market researchers and brand managers, though. A report by CII on the emerging trends in the gaming industry points to India as one of the fastest growing markets in the world and offers insights into gamers’ behavior

 

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* Mobile gaming accounted for the largest share in the global gaming market

* Free mobile games are attracting gamers to download different types of mobile games

* Asia-Pacific (APAC) dominated global gaming market, major markets in APAC include China, Japan, South Korea, India

* The India gaming market is around $543 million (2016) and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.61 per cent, in value terms, over the next five years

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* In 2016, India accounted for a share of 0.55 per cent of the global gaming industry; increasing focus on Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) related games in the country is expected to boost the market in coming five years

* New and advanced gaming platforms are in demand as are equipment such as headsets, storage and memory devices; Kingston, Nvidia and ATI are among the most popular brands

* Gaming software typically takes around 24 months to develop and the production budget is in the range of $ 5-12 million; a significant amount  is outsourced to India

* Major game publishers in India include Gamezone, gameguru, expresscomputeronline, nexusnettech, Nazara

*  Celebrity and persona-based games are the most successful; Bollywood and sports celebrities are prime gaming icons. Games such as Being Salman, Sachin Saga, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Hero: The Fight are popular

* Mobile gaming dominates the Indian market and accounted for half of the total gaming industry revenues in 2016

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* The India mobile gaming market is projected to cross $400 million by 2022

* Console gaming accounted for the second largest share of 35.51 per cent; high cost of consoles restricts the market to urban India

* Strategy games are the most popular in the country and accounted for 16.30 per cent share in 2016, followed by casual, action, sports and simulation games

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Source: TechSci Research, Emerging trends in the gaming industry, CII