Mainstreaming Gaming-as-a-Service

GaaS is a growing trend in the gaming industry, this model is ultimately a good thing for gamers—a real possibility in a future that includes cloud gaming and games-as-platforms. Additionally, with the rollout of 5G, GaaS will benefit from even more players coming in to challenge and push the industry forward

- Prabhu Ram

Through the course of the pandemic, India has seen a strong uptick in gaming. This is driven by the rise of powerful smartphones across price-tiers as well as affordable data costs.

At CyberMedia Research (CMR), the CMR Gaming Practice has been tracking the gaming industry in India, both from a supply side (devices intelligence) as well as demand side (consumer research) perspective.

Undoubtedly, over the course of the pandemic years, with more consumers spending time at home, gaming has seen a rapid traction in India.

There are three archetypes of Indian gamers that CMR Gaming Practice has identified, based on the time spent on gaming. These include hyper-casual gamers, casual gamers and hardcore gamers.

Interestingly, 48 months after the onset of COVID19, CMR’s most recent gamer survey pointed out to a 40% inflection in hardcore gamers in India. Alongside, there has been a decline in hyper-casual gamers. Game play time has increased, with three in every five gamers spending anywhere between 31 to 120 minutes in a typical play session. On an average, each gamer spends 79 minutes in a typical play session. In comparison to the pre-pandemic phase, there has been a whopping 100% uptick in paid gaming. All of these trends point to a healthy 16% YoY growth in mobile gaming.

Recent research from CMR’s Gaming Practice points to some interesting trends around hardcore gamers. Three in every five gamers play action/adventure games. Hardcore gamers mostly play, or prefer action, and first-person shooter games.

Two in every three hardcore gamers have participated in online gaming contests, with a 10% YoY growth in gamer participation. Hardcore gamers participate, on an average, in eight online gaming contests annually.