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Quarantine life sees a surge in online gaming
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, number of games played and hours spent online has shot up
As the majority of the world, including India, self-isolates to stop the spread of the ongoing Corona pandemic, people are figuring out ways to pass these trying times at home. One of the industries to have benefitted from all the social distancing and self-isolation is the online gaming industry, which has seen a massive surge in the number of hours spent by Indian users in the world of online gaming.
“Due to the current situation, staying indoors leaves one with plenty of idle time. This has resulted in more and more people indulging in online gaming. In the past few weeks, online gaming operators have seen an uptick in the number of downloads. This has led to the robust growth of 10-12% increase in user engagement in India during this pandemic,” says the CEO of All India Gaming Federation, Roland Landers.
“We had a user base of 5,000 before the Coronavirus outbreak and now there are 6,000-6,500 people playing on our platform daily. Earlier time spent was two-and-a-half hours a day, now it has increased to somewhere around four hours. It is too early to comment on the overall impact, but we are looking at a 50-100% increase in the coming quarter,” says Varun Mahna, Founder and CEO of online video game Poker Dangal.
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From online games such as space warrior and bubble shooter to games which involve betting real time money such as adda 52 rummy and teen patti are being downloaded by more and more users every day. Industry experts say that the number of hours spent playing online and the number of games played online has grown to an all-time high.
“During the weekend we observed the gameplay increase three folds on our platform! This trend is only increasing. We experienced a 30% surge in T1 traffic over the last week. The number of games played and time spent on the app grew to almost three times, recording an all-time high,” says Saumya Singh Rathore Co Founder of the vernacular social gaming platform WinZo.
Outside of India too, the situation is similar, and according to a report in the British tabloid Independent, the massive spike online has even led to crashes and malfunctions across a number of gaming platforms and gaming websites. According to a popular video game analyst Daniel Ahmad, “Mobile games have also been impacted with Honor of Kings experiencing downtime recently as more than 100 million people try to log in each day, up from 60 million or so, prior to the lunar new year period”.
Indian gaming companies are ready for the challenge, and are also trying to attract more users in the wave of the ongoing pandemic, which shows no signs of disappearing. “We are doing our bit to help people stay mentally fit in the wake of this crisis by creating better products and exciting tournaments on our platform,” says Ashish Bhakuni, the Head of Marketing at Adda52Rummy.
“Companies are likely to come up with scenario-relevant content to drive engagement with players. This could mean new updates and features, new gaming variants etc, that grab user attention. Some companies may increase spends to on-board players, but if this goes on long-term then most changes will take place in-app as a way to maintain the active user base. We are currently doing something similar with limited-time promotions that will provide players with maximum value,” says Varun Ganjoo, the Co Founder of Baazi Games.
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