How Jio contributed to the growth of mobile games
The huge discounts war triggered by Reliance Jio has led to a massive increase in the number of mobile gamers, and consequently, has benefited both domestic and international mobile game companies. The surge in users took place mostly after December 2016, meanwhile other data-heavy digital content like education, news streaming, music streaming, and video streaming also went up.
Jio users and high data usage
"The trend of high data usage by Jio subscribers is continuing and consumption is well-distributed across circles," said a spokesperson from Reliance Jio.
Companies reap unreal benefits
For instance, Mumbai-based Nazara Games saw its user base grow from 5 million in December 2016 to 12 million in May 2017, along with an almost 100% increase in revenue compared to the whole of 2016. Several other domestic gaming companies like Mumbai-based Game2win, Bengaluru-based Moonfrog also saw a similar increase in users and revenue. US-based Imangi Studios also saw a doubling of users.
Signs of maturity in the Indian gaming market
"The share of 2017 revenue (so far) for Octro, Moonfrog, Nazara Games, Play Games24x7, Reliance Games versus their 2016 full-year revenues was over 80%. It's a certain sign the (Indian gaming) market is maturing," said a spokesperson from San Francisco-based research firm App Annie.
The overall increase in game downloads and game time
Particular companies apart, the total downloads of the Top 10 Games on both Google Play Store and the iOS App Store went up in India from 18 million in the fourth quarter of 2016 to 24 million in the first quarter of 2017. Moreover, time spent on games also increased from 1,630 million hours in 2016 Q4 to 2,120 million hours in 2017 Q1.
