The Director and Head of partnerships at Facebook, Manish Chopra, stated in an interview with Moneycontrol that there has been a lot of growth in gaming in India in the last few years. Starting from the early days of the pandemic, India grew into the 3rd largest market for Facebook in terms of gameplay streams, with around 234 million sessions between July and August 2021.
Facebook stepping into the gaming market
According to a recent report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, India’s mobile gaming market is expected to triple in size from $1.8 Billion in 2021 to $6-7 billion by 2025. Manish Chopra revealed that Facebook plans to capitalize on the growth of the gaming sector in India, they have been focused on building out their platform, adding tools to reach game developers and new audiences.
Although he didn’t disclose any details of the number of gamers streaming on their platform but globally over 380 million users play games on the platform on a monthly basis.
Specifically, in India, over 20 million people were active members of gaming groups on Facebook between July and August 2021. We’ve seen a lot of content in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Punjabi really do well on our platform, apart from English
Manish Chopra, DIRECTOR AND HEAD OF PARTNERSHIPS AT FACEBOOK
Facebook creator program made some huge success
Facebook disclosed that globally PUBG Mobile was the most streamed game by its gaming creators in India in July-August 2021, followed by Garena’s Free Fire, Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto V, PUBG Battlegrounds, and Moontoon’s Mobile Legends.
Creators and streamers monetized through in-stream ads on their live streams, as well as fan subscriptions and virtual tips for verified gaming creators through its creator programs like Level Up and invite-only partner programs.
Facebook Gaming added to the growth of India’s gaming scene
Facebook Gaming tab, a dedicated gaming section, was added in March 2019 allowing users to play instant games as well as watch gaming videos and streams streamers. Later in April 2020, Facebook had launched a standalone gaming app called Facebook Gaming.
Besides that, they have put special attention in its games experience over the past few years. Alongside Facebook’s popular social games, it facilitated game streaming, VR and cloud gaming as well.
More competitors are coming
Although casual games still dominate Facebook’s gaming platform, many leading publishers are attracting new gamers with preview-like, instantly playable versions of their games through this platform. While Google’s YouTube is a daunting competitor at present, Facebook is working with streamers and game publishers to improve their game streaming platform.
What are your thoughts of India’s exceptional gaming growth? Let us know in the comments below.
For more Mobile Gaming news and updates, join our WhatsApp group, Telegram Group, or Discord server. Also, follow us on Google News, Instagram, and Twitter for quick updates.
