The rapid growth in the availability of mobile Internet is one of the main factors that drive gaming business in the Asia Pacific, according to PwC’s research.
Asia Pacific region is expected to generate $181.8 billion in gaming revenues by 2028, or 54.4 percent of the global gaming revenue as compared with nearly 48 percent in 2023, PwC predicts.
Gaming revenue in China, one of the countries in the Asia Pacific region, is expected to overtake those of the US by the end of 2024. The launch of low-cost 5G smartphones powered by MediaTek chipsets, growth in games-saavy young population across many geographies, and availability of cost-effective mobile internet has already reshaped the gaming business in Asia Pacific.
Anku Jain, Managing Director of MediaTek India, revealed at India Mobile Congress that the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 combines a second-generation All Big Core design with industry-leading AI, compute, gaming, and photography capabilities.
Sanyam Chaurasia, Senior Analyst at Canalys, in a recent report said the introduction of affordable 5G smartphones with price range of ₹10,000 or $120 is expected to drive growth of the Indian smartphone market in 2025.
Jay Chou, research manager for IDC’s Worldwide Client Devices Trackers, said the gaming market for PCs and monitors will hit 69.3 million in 2024, or 9 percent higher than 2023. Gaming will be accountable for 20 percent of the total PC and Monitor market by 2028.
PwC says the number of people in the Asia Pacific region subscribing to mobile internet services has more than doubled in the last decade to over 1.4 billion. The region is well known for the rise of mobile-first games.
Indian smartphone users, exceeding 650 million, are allocating money on data usage for the purposes of entertainment and playing games. In 2023, Indians consumed 24.1 GB of data per month per person — an increase of 24 percent over 2022. But there are complaints about lack of data speed in several rural areas of the country.
India has nearly 600 million people below the age of 35 (during 2023–2024). India is the youngest nation in the world, making it a hotbed of young gamers and vibrant talent pools that can design and build new games.
“The future of the gaming depends on how games are being developed and played. It’s imperative to look at how games are monetised and distributed. Emerging technologies like spatial reality (AR and VR), blockchain and AI are revolutionising the industry,” Rajesh Dhuddu Partner, Emerging Technologies at PwC, said.
Indian gamers are relying on 5G mobile services offered by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio as India moved to a 5G nation. Vodafone Idea and BSNL are gearing up to launch 5G.
Indian gamers, who depend on mobile Internet speed, have concerns because concerns about 5G speed from their telecom operators.
Airtel’s 5G download speeds have dropped to 239.7Mbps in Q2 2024 from 300Mbps in Q1 2023, primarily due to mobile network congestion.
Reliance Jio’s 5G customers have experienced download speed of 224.8Mbps in Q2 2024.
Airtel’s 5G upload speed is 23.3Mbps, according to the latest analysis from Opensignal. The upload speed of Reliance Jio is 12.7Mbps.
Reliance Jio is making investment in 5G standalone access (SA) network using 700MHz for rural areas and 3.5GHz for urban centers, with mmWave (26GHz) reserved only for high-capacity applications. The 700MHz band ensures extensive coverage.
Airtel opted for a non-standalone access (NSA) approach, deploying 5G on top of its existing 4G infrastructure for faster urban rollouts.
India’s 5G Availability, which ensures better experience for games, has surged, with 5G users spending 52 percent of their time on 5G networks as of Q2 2024.
The other trend mapped by Opensignal is that smartphone users are spending less time on 4G, while time on 2G and 3G hasn’t changed significantly, suggesting time on 4G is gradually getting replaced by 5G. Gamers are waiting for better Internet speed to spend more time on gaming.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
