Top Trends Reshaping Online Gaming in 2022

It’s no secret that online gaming is taking over not just India but the entire world. COVID-19 resulted in an increase in players looking online for entertainment and opportunities to socialize.

This led to a slew of new opportunities for online game providers to take the reins. For starters, there’s definitely no shortage of new mobile Android and iOS games available for download. This brings us to our first key trend. The trend of Augmented reality games is on the boom and it’s the future of the gaming industry. Once there was a time when we play small sized highly compressed games on our PC but nowadays the gaming culture and the quality of the games have been improved a lot and now we have high-end graphics games on PC as well as on smartphones like BGMI, Free fire, etc.

1 – Evolution of Gaming Smartphones and 5G

revolution in gaming industry in 2021

 

Here in India, extremely low data tariffs alongside high-speed 4G implementation have resulted in mobile claiming the largest chunk of the gaming market at 85%. In fact, Indians have downloaded PUBG Mobile over 1.75 million times. At the peak of its popularity, the mobile battle royale game saw daily 34 million players. Furthermore, driven by mobile growth, experts estimate that the local eSports market is expected to increase by 36% every year for the next three years.

 

Similar conditions can be observed in North America, Europe, and the other highly active gaming markets in the world. And as 5G promises to exponentially increase mobile data speeds, mobile gaming and its related sectors are bound to scale even faster.

2 – Artificial Intelligence

The influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in online gaming is not always apparent. But as Entrepreneur writes, AI has plenty of use cases in online games. Some multiplayer shooters use AI to balance team chemistry during matches. Programmed non-player character (NPC) reactions have largely been improved by AI as well. In fact, increasingly intelligent and competitive NPC AI is paving the way for games that understand speech and respond realistically.

 

AI has also shown promise in leveraging player data for improving the user experience in online casinos, real money poker rooms, eSports arenas, massively multiplayer online games, and other online gaming platforms. In the cybersecurity space, experts are running hacking data through AI algorithms to determine weak points and develop better system defenses. And as mobile and 5G technologies further increase access to online games, there will be more player data for AI to build upon.

3 – Gaming Partnerships

2021 is also seeing the rise of partnerships that are driving the growth of the online gaming industry in different directions. Gaming partnerships allow companies to expand in order to scale and diversify revenue streams. In the world of web-based casinos, global iGaming provider Evoplay recently inked a partnership deal with Italian gaming site Giochi di Slots. While this allows the former to get a foothold on a rising local European gaming market, it gives the Giochi di Slots better access to global players as well.

 

See also: How to optimize MAC gaming performance

 

Meanwhile, independent marketing cloud company InMobi recently established partnerships with various in-game advertising platforms such as Admix, Adverty, and Frameplay. This gives these different platforms access to InMobi Exchange and its unique in-game inventory of adoptions that blend into gaming environments. The partnership is expected to drive rapid growth in clever and non-disruptive in-game advertising. These are just some of the many partnerships being established by gaming, marketing, and IT companies around the globe. By creating mutually beneficial deals, these companies are driving rapid development in the online gaming space.

4 – Gaming Regulations

Unlike North America, Europe, and some Asian countries, Indian states have strict rules against online games that can be considered gambling. This could soon change due to the rapid rise of online fantasy sports games, a sector in which India contributed INR 2,470 Cr in revenue during the financial year of 2020.

In fact, public policy think tank NITI Aayog recently published a paper detailing guiding principles for how this massive sector can be regulated at a national level. Although there is some opposition to these developments, it’s paving the way for India to catch up with global betting and gambling regulations. Elsewhere, organizations like the UK Gambling Commission and the US-based Fantasy Sports and Gaming Association already have blueprints for India to follow. And if this sector does become well regulated, it could spark similar developments in online casinos or even eSports betting platforms as well.


These are the key trends that are shaping online gaming in India and the rest of the planet. In the future, we can expect these trends to continue playing key roles in the continued development of the global online gaming industry.

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