Market Research: The Esports Club and Lenovo Gaming Survey

Over the last couple of decades, gaming has gone from a fairly niche form of entertainment to one of the fastest-growing industries in India and a go-to source of entertainment for a large demographic. A new survey by The Esports Club and Lenovo with a massive sample size of over 18,000 participants highlights key differences in gaming habits, choice of platform, parental attitudes and more.

The TEC Lenovo Gaming survey reveals that the average Indian gamer is less than 24 years old. The survey is deeply comprehensive as data was collected from over 70 different cities in India, providing a rich tapestry of information gathered from a variety of backgrounds, economic conditions, and ages. One of the key standouts from the presentation is the skew towards competitive gaming, wherein, several years ago, AAA games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty would be the most popular standouts - that spot has now been taken over by more esports and esports adjacent titles like Valorant, Rainbow 6 Siege, and others of its ilk.

Students Make Up 71% of the Gaming Audience in India

The TEC Lenovo Gaming survey indicates that the average age of gamers in India has steadily been getting younger, to the point, where 71% of gamers in the country are students. 89% of gamers in India are under 24 years old, signalling a massive scope of growth for the industry. Another key highlight from this data comes from the 71-29% mix of students and working professionals, creating a good mix for the gaming industry, catering to both audiences with the potential for premium gaming experiences. 

Parental Attitudes Towards Gaming 

While gaming has generally been looked at with slight suspicion as a viable form of entertainment - the newer generation of parents and the popularity of the medium seems to have brought about a major paradigm shift. The survey suggests that 30% of parents support their children's gaming habits and even lend encouragement towards gaming as a career prospect. This will effectively help in the growth of the burgeoning esports industry in the country as well as content creation through gaming. 

This is a massively positive sign for players in the games, esports, and entertainment industries in the country as the vast majority of the gaming audience still falls under parental supervision. 

In congruence with the mainstream-ification of gaming, players' demands in terms of hardware and their choice of gaming have evolved over time. While AAA games once ruled the roost in the country with a fairly small audience, the vast majority of gamers now enjoy multiplayer, competitive games - with 13% of players choosing to player competitive titles that could allow them to transition from games as entertainment to a budding career in esports. 

This data effectively communicates that there is a strong need for better hardware in India to be able to run the more taxing competitive titles, replete with features such as a high refresh rate screen, powerful GPUs, and such. Another key takeaway from our Q/A with TEC Founder Vamsi Krishna included the mobile gaming platform acting as a solid gateway platform for gamers in the country. The jump from mobile gaming to affordable gaming laptops has resulted in a surge of players towards more competitive titles.

Other Notable Highlights from the Survey

• The majority of gamers can be found engaging with content on Instagram with a massive 99% of respondents present and actively involved on the platform. Snapchat is a distant second but still sees a lot of gamers with over 53% of respondents present on the platform. 

• 54% of gamers tend to play for longer durations of time, with sessions typically lasting 1-3 hours per day. This lines up perfectly well with the kind of games audiences are engaging with competitive titles often leading to longer game sessions and multiplayer titles often being the place where gamers choose to hang out.

• The increasing purchasing power of working professionals and accepting parents has led to the vast majority of gamers enjoying games from the comfort of their homes. This displays an evolution from the past and signals that gaming has been accepted as a genuine from of entertainment and leisure activity.