Mobile games are a great way to kill time when you are commuting or just getting bored waiting for someone who just insists to be late! But mobile gaming in India is more than that. One of the biggest mobile and online games company, Indiagames has done a little research on the dynamics of the Indian mobile gaming business.
The report was released at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It has taken into account a lot of factors like the user profiles and statistics on operator shares, pricing, download details, top titles, genres, circles and handsets from the Indian mobile gaming industry.
Samir Bangara is the COO of Indiagames. He says, “We have seen aggressive growth of 43% in the market in the last one year with the key genres being action, cricket and Hollywood based titles. The surge in unique users by about 85% in the last 6 months can be largely attributed to free GPRS access schemes and proliferation of affordable GPRS handsets.”
Vishal Gondal is the founder and the chief executive officer of Indiagames. He said, “Game revenues are in fact larger than music on GPRS with some operators. A high end user could spend as much as US$20 a month on games, almost 2.5x the average revenue per user in India. We expect the market to grow aggressively in the coming years with our 2010 estimates at around USD 250 million.”
Here are some key findings of the report on the Indian mobile gaming industry. It covers GSM as well as CDMA platforms:
– The market is currently at an annualized run rate of US$ 29 million
– About 100,000 games are downloaded per day across all networks in the country
– GSM has a 79% share on a revenue basis with a 70% share on a download basis
– While Airtel continues to have the highest share in mobile games, both Vodafone and Reliance have grown their games business considerably in the last year.
– Users in the 22– 35 age bracket (pre-dominantly male) account for the largest share of downloads at 40%
– Mobile game downloads on GSM peak across a wide time band stretching between 1pm– 5 pm and 7pm – 11pm
– Nokia is the dominant handset of choice for games and occupies all 10 positions amongst the Top 10 gaming handset
– The current GSM average download price point is INR 35.5 (US$0.89) as compared to CDMA’s INR 22.25 (US$0.56) (INR 14 excluding Reliance BREW)
– The Top 10 game genres include Action, Cricket, Hollywood and Strategy, with Cricket being the dominant genre with the top download for the year being 2020 Cricket
– As per current estimates, mobile gaming is expected to be the largest gaming segment ahead of online and console
Besides these findings on the Indian mobile gaming industry, Indiagames also shared the list of the top ten mobile games in India. Here it is:
1. 2020 Cricket (Indiagames)
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Electronic Arts)
3. Moto GP (THQ Wireless)
4. WWE Raw (THQ Wireless)
5. Brian Lara Cricket 2007 (Glu)
6. Transformers (Glu)
7. Sachin’s Spin (Nazara)
8. Cricket Champions Trophy (Indiagames)
9. Bruce Lee (Indiagames)
10. Fast & Furious (I-Play)
This is the first time that Indiagames has come with a report on the Indian mobile gaming industry. The findings have revealed some really surprising facts about the mobile gaming industry in India. But the list of the top mobile games reflects the popularity of cricket-themed games in India.