Report reveals what Indian gamers are missing out while hooked on their screens

Not much time has passed since Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while conducting ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’, struck a chord with Indian gaming enthusiasts by asking ‘Ye PUBG waala hai kya’ (Is he a PUBG player), acknowledging the rise of gaming culture in India. This culture continues to pervade, according to the latest “State of Online Gaming” research report on worldwide consumers’ gaming behaviours and expectations from Limelight Networks, a leading provider of edge cloud services.

The global study revealed that Indian gamers are spending nearly seven hours each week playing online games. 23.4 percent play for more than seven hours each week, with 11.4 percent playing more than 12 hours a week. The time spent playing games has interfered with their lifestyle, social activities and even career aspiration.

45 percent of Indian gamers admitted that they have missed sleep to play; 37 percent skipped a meal and 35 percent missed out on spending time with friends or going on a date. More than any other country, India has the most gamers missing work so they can play at 24.2 percent. As prize money from gaming tournaments continues to rise, more people are considering video gaming as a professional career. Globally, India has the highest percentage of gamers at 49.2 percent whom are considering quitting their jobs to become professionals.

Compared with gaming consoles, computers, and tablets, mobile phones remain the most popular device for gameplay in India – a consistent preference across the world. Computers and tablets are also widely used in India more than any other country.

Additional insights from the report include:

• Indians prefer to download their games: Downloading remains the common method of acquiring video games across the world. 74.6 percent of Indian gamers prefer to download their games, as compared to buying or renting a physical copy. Trading games with other players continues to experience popularity in India at 4.4 percent, higher than the U.K. and U.S.
• Game download speed is still an issue: Over 90 percent of Indian gamers find the process of downloading video games frustrating. Whilst the length of time it takes to download games was noted to be a top issue globally at 33.8 percent, Indian gamers find that interruption to the download process is their top frustration at 38.2 percent.
• Performance matters: Performance is the most important consideration for Indian gamers and how fast the game loads has the greatest impact on their experience. Ease of gameplay, storyline, and the ability to play offline are secondary considerations.

The State of Online Gaming report is based on responses from 4,500 consumers in France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States age 18 and older who play video games at least once a week.