Covid-19 & lockdown accelerate online gaming

NEW DELHI: Quite a few online games that are becoming popular during the lockdown have innovative survival scenarios, in keeping with the Covid-19 health scare. Even as the best medical minds try and control the outbreak and find a cure for Covid-19, people in lockdown are finding gaming the best avenue to connect and socialize with family, friends and colleagues. Time spent on games has dramatically increased, more people are playing online games and more gaming companies are cashing in on the rising interest in India.
According to a Google-KPMG report, the online gaming segment is pegged at $1.1 billion by 2021. India is among the top five mobile gaming markets in the world with around 300 million gamers. With Covid 19, this trend of more users and more time being spent on games is only multiplying.

Parth Chadha, founder Ewar Games says, “more and more people are seeking thrill and entertainment in the world of online gaming as we see casual gamers turn into serious ones.” Ewar is a gaming app started in January 2019. It offers 20 games including Knife Dart, Ludo, CandyJam along with gruesome battles in hardcore shooting games like PUBG, FreeFire and Call of Duty.

Faisal Kawoosa, founder & chief analyst TechArc says, “the biggest trend in gaming is that multiplayer gaming has started to pick up. Earlier only PUBG like game was encouraging multiplayer mode, now employees, friends etc are connecting remotely even for playing games like Ludo. People are looking at games to socialize and connect.”

New gaming ventures are also entering the India market. For instance, Paytm First Games, gaming arm of the digital payments platform Paytm started in 2019 and witnessed 200% increase in user base during lockdown. Paytm First Games offers around 300 games including Fantasy Cricket, Teen Patti and Rummy. Another startup Gameberry Lab has seen significant growth in daily instalment and user engagement. `Play with friends’ format has seen a sharp rise in lockdown with 18 to 45 year olds spending more time on gaming than before.

Kuldeep Malik, director, corporate sales, MediaTek India says, “companies are leveraging innovative technologies like XR (Extended Reality) and AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) to create seamless game play experience for end customers.”



Chip maker MediaTek sees a big opportunity in gaming. The MediaTek Helio G series chipset (G stands for gaming) was “conceptualised with the aim of making every millisecond matter for the gaming enthusiast,” says Malik. Its gaming chipsets power several devices including Realme C3, Realme 6i and the Xiaomi Note 8 Pro.

Kawoosa points out that gaming has been a big focus for smartphone makers, particularly for devices above Rs 15,000. “Smartphones will keep on adding further gaming capabilities,” he says.

And its not just entertainment as Chadha of Ewar Games says, “real money gaming too has evolved. The skill acquired gives the players the confidence and ambition to pursue real money gaming. Gaming now has the ability to stand out as a profession in itself.” That might just be one of the other big benefits of gaming.