Starting 5G Rollout Will Push Mobile Gaming To New Heights
5G Connectivity Will Bring About a New Era for Gaming
For the last few years, mobile gaming has been one of the most flourishing industries in India, backed up by growing smartphone penetration, increasing technical specs of affordable devices, and some of the world’s cheapest but fast data plans. The upcoming in 2022 5G connectivity rollout will herald a new era for mobile gaming by raising data speeds up to 10x and spectrum efficiency up to 3x, while bringing latency to ultra low values, which will greatly enhance gaming experience.
The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) estimates the current number of mobile gamers in the country at 43 crore and expects the Bharat mobile gaming market to reach a size of $ 3.9 billion and a user base of 65 crore by the year 2025. At present, more than 40 percent of desi hardcore mobile gamers pay for their games with average monthly spends coming at ₹ 230.
“A majority of Indians have realized that mobile gaming is not just a source of enjoyment or entertainment, but also a source of earning real money. Higher adoption of smartphones, wider internet access, a large number of mobile-first games, and influencers with huge fan bases are also catalyzing the growth of gaming in India,” comments Anku Jain, Managing Director of MediaTek India, a company making chips for smartphones.
The growth of the mobile gaming sector was further accelerated by the pandemic, with the Covid-induced restrictions and lockdowns leading to a 50 percent rise in mobile app downloads and a 20 percent increase of user engagement, according to IAMAI data.
“Advent of 5G in India will drive this momentum even further and enhance gaming experiences due to factors like higher data speeds, lower latency, and technologies like Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. Moreover, to address this upcoming demand and meet consumer expectations, many OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) have already launched a range of 5G-enabled smartphones,” says Sachin Kalantari, Qualcomm India’s Senior Director of Product Marketing.
The Indian Smartphone Market before 5G Rollout
A 2021 report by real money gaming market analysts ENV Media (Esse N Videri Media) titled “Which Mobile Devices Do Indian Online Gamblers Use Most?” offers a thorough insight into the specifics of Bharat’s smartphone market before the upcoming advent of 5G networks.
The study scrutinises proprietary data and analytic feedback on organic searches related to the best online casinos and casino games in India and user acquisition numbers for the period between January 1 and April 30, 2021 to arrive at statistically valid market share figures and other related information.
Indian users searching for online blackjack and various other casino games have predominantly been doing it from smartphones of Chinese-owned brands which have a combined share of 64.27 percent. Xiaomi emerges as the leading brand with a share of 23.38 percent, followed by South Korean Samsung with 19.24 percent. The Top 5 is completed by Chinese brands Vivo, Oppo, and Realme with shares of 15.25 percent, 10.68 percent, and 8.87 percent respectively.
American Apple with its market share of 5.44 percent is facing the challenge of OnePlus in the premium smartphone segment with the latter brand having a share of 3.95 percent. Notably, Huawei phones are used by only 2.14 percent of all consumers accounted for in the Esse N Videri study.
Out of these brands, Realme was able to bring the cheapest 5G-ready smartphone on the market, while OnePlus shipped the greatest share (33 percent) of 5G devices.
13 Large Cities will Be the First to Get 5G
According to a December 2021 statement by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), 5G network rollout in India will happen in 2022. The statement revealed that the residents of 13 large cities will be the first in the country to experience the new enhanced connectivity.
These cities are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune. Telecom operators Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) already carried out 5G trials in most of these cities during 2021.
