Young people from all backgrounds love gaming because games are rich imaginative worlds in which fantasies are enacted. Games are exciting, gripping, and increasingly pecuniary. There are an ample number of gaming platforms on which players earn by playing games like poker. On the whole, the gaming ecosystem is hugely diverse, and according to the latest figures, more significant than even the worlds’ most prominent film industry.
A few reasons behind the astonishing popularity of online gaming are as follow.
Skill Trumps Luck
Being good at online gaming is increasingly a question of skill. Those who excel at online gaming aren’t nerds who have nothing better to do, far from it. They are highly intelligent and more often than not successful professionals who moonlight as gamers. Many are respected professionals in the financial services and technology industries; their high aptitude, which lets them excel professionally, also allows them to excel at gaming. Most gamers are as serious about gaming as they are about their professions and for a good reason. Success in gaming translates into huge monetary windfalls and recognition.
Serious professionals need additional outlets for their creativity and gaming platforms provide the same. To excel at online games like poker, players need superior cognition and ability. On gaming platforms, the financial rewards for the intellectually gifted are immense. Because the stakes of online games are so high, gaming platforms tend to attract serious players who enjoy pitting their wits against other high achievers. To gamers, online gaming is serious business.
The Unparalleled Sophistication of Gaming
When gaming began, it was intended for children and teenagers. Many gamers over the age of 35 grew up playing simple scroller games like Super Mario Brothers. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, games had a simple design and were meant for children and teenagers.
As Generation X and millennials grew up, so did gaming. Today’s games are a far cry from their predecessors which ushered in the era of gaming. An eight-year-old could play the first scroller but will have difficulty mastering the latest games. The complexity of the newest games means playing them demands considerable intelligence. Additionally, games today have themes that only adults can appreciate. For this reason, gaming has outgrown children and teenagers and today attracts a mature audience of grown-up college students and professionals.
Captivating Lifestyles of Gaming celebrities
It is common knowledge that in South Korea, top gamers are treated like celebrities and even enjoy a following of “groupies”. South Korean players are not alone.
Successful gamers from across the world broadcast their lifestyle on social media, creating a desire among many to emulate their jet-set lifestyles. The world’s top poker players are treated no differently by fans than leading cricketers or movie stars. On Instagram, one of the leading poker players in the world gives followers a glimpse into his high flying lifestyle, which includes a bevvy of beauties, fast cars, guns, and stunning clothing. Of the celebrities’ followers, a majority are from India, especially from the country’s aspirational class which wants to make it big while they are young. This aspirational class enjoys a global worldview and knows that there are many paths to making it big; studying to become an engineer or doctor is no longer the road to prosperity. The new aspirational class believes excellence in any field translates into monetary success, and when the area happens to be online gaming that has a heady mix of fun, so much the better.
“With over 250M mobile gamers, India has emerged as one of the top 5 gaming countries. There are various factors that contribute this trend to rise like firstly, the increase in the sale of the Smartphone and deeper penetration of the internet even to the remotest locations in India, thus, making it easily accessible to wide segment of audience. High disposable income also plays a vital role in this, with people are left with ample of capital even after paying their taxes. Lastly, the factor of side income earning has also attracting the mindsets of young individuals and millennial that they are ready to invest in the online gaming platforms.” – Debashish Bhattacharjee,Co-Founder and CMO,Pocket52
“Globally, gaming is larger than the film industry and the online streaming industry.. combined!
In India, gaming is driving by increasing numbers of players playing online, with more than 90% accessing games on their mobile devices (rather than dedicated consoles, laptops, or desktops). In the next few years, broadband and smartphones will continue to penetrate deeper across India, and increasing numbers of games will start supporting multiple languages, so online gaming will continue to grow. Within that, games like online poker and online fantasy sports, with a clear revenue model, will capture a larger share of the pie” – Sudhir Kamath, CEO & Co-Founder, 9Stacks
“Online gaming is a huge multi-billion dollar business. It is already more significant than the film industry not in the least because online gaming produces its stars whose fan following meets or exceeds in number that of A-list celebrities. Many who are young and relatively young, harbour the aspiration to become successful gamers. They are creative, intelligent risk-takers who want the most out of life. To them, online gaming is a serious pursuit that allows them to demonstrate their skill and win big. Of course, the majority of gamers don’t harbour such ambitions. They are gamers because gaming is so much fun. Gaming has matured along with the generation that first played them such that today’s gaming characters tend to be adults in their late 20s or 30s- the same age that the generation most into gaming is. The games these adults play would have astonished developers from gaming’s earliest days. Graphics are not longer about 32-bit or 64-bit; these concepts which drove console sales in gaming’s earliest days are irrelevant. Today’s gamers know that outstanding graphics are a given; they want to play games that are incredibly challenging and realistic. Today’s games are for the big boys”. – Mr. Varun Mahna, CEO & Founder, PokerDangal
‘Playing games have always been the most significant entertainment medium for all age groups, whether it is playing cricket in an empty ground, or playing cards or board games while having guests over at home. But due to our day-to-day grind of busy schedules, it gets difficult to physically get the entertainment dose in our lives. Here the online gaming fills the entertainment funnel for people such as a fantasy game- BalleBaazi.com, due to the ease of accessibility with the interface on smartphones from just about any part of the world, a wide variety of games to choose from, we can now also compete with not only the peer groups but people playing from across the globe and attain a social visibility, gaining various kinds of rewards. All these attributes to the online format of gaming trending worldwide and attracting more and more users towards it.” – Saurabh Chopra, CEO at BalleBaazi
