What is driving mobile gaming amid the pandemic in India?

New Delhi: Amid the pandemic, especially the everything-from-home year, mobile gaming took off spectacularly in India. For consumers trying to deal with the prolonged social isolation, along with all the anxiety and ambiguity of the last year, mobile gaming provided a creative outlet.
From my vantage point, I know of loved ones and peers who took to mobile games more fervently during the past year. As we complete the pandemic anniversary, let us ponder over what is actually driving mobile gaming, and what does the future portend.
As smartphones continue to be the central nervous system of human lives, the dependence on phones for work, for learning, and most importantly, for unwinding and socialising through gaming rose during the last year.
Much before the pandemic, mobile gaming was on the upswing, driven by the ubiquitous smartphones and the availability of low-cost data.
At CyberMedia Research (CMR), our ongoing research around gaming has thrown some interesting insights. For instance, mobile gaming in India is driven by an array of gamer personas, ranging from the serious to the hyper-casual gamers. The growth in mobile gaming was led not by serious gamers, but rather casual and hyper-casual gamers.
The democratisation of gaming can be traced to the smartphone usage. With smartphones, the need for dedicated gaming hardware devices is not felt. No consoles required. Additionally, mobile gaming apps evoke a sense of familiarity with consumers. Think Puzzles. Or card games.