Remember the time when playing Farmville or Candy Crush and showing off the post on your friend’s feed was a rage? Fast forward to 2021, and the scenario has changed completely.
Now your game moves could have millions of live viewers who are willing to even pay for playing games online.
Well, that is what social media giant, Facebook is trying to bring to the gaming industry in India, which is one of its top three markets globally for the vertical.
The Covid-19 pandemic has proven to be a shot in the arm for online gamers with the mobile gaming industry alone estimated to grow to $7 billion by 2021, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India.
Notably, 200 million people watch games on the Facebook platform every month globally which includes viewing live games as well as videos on demand.
India is one of the top countries; in fact, we ranked third within the Facebook world
“India is one of the top countries; in fact, we ranked third within the Facebook world in terms of a gameplay session. So a massive amount of gameplay is happening in India.
The other aspect that has grown substantially is viewership of live gaming video that has grown dramatically and that’s grown by almost 6X. It fundamentally shows that there is a secular organic growth that is happening on gameplay on Facebook,” the top executive said.
The company, although, doesn’t break down the numbers on a country-wide basis for the casual gamers, but does claim that, on a global level, 380 million people play casual games on Facebook and in India alone 234 million gaming sessions were recorded over the past two months.
This kind of traction that Facebook has seen for its gaming vertical. According to Chopra, is sustainable, and the trend has only accelerated with the new normal.
Amongst the hugely popular games being currently streamed on Facebook include PUBG mobile, Garena, Freefire, Battlegrounds, and Grand Theft Auto.
Chopra said that an evolving trend that Facebook has seen in India when it comes to gaming, is community-level participation, with nearly 20 million people in the country active on various Facebook gaming groups.
