Examining Relationship Between Behaviour of Online Gamers and Choice of Multi Gaming Platforms A Study of Indian Metro Cities

Abstract

India is at the fountain head of a burgeoning global online gaming business. Given the newlinecurrent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), industry reports estimate that India newlinewill have 700 million active gamers by 2025 and according to the National newlineInvestment Promotion and Facilitation Agency, a government body, the online newlinegaming business is projected to generate a revenue of INR 231 Billion by FY 2025. newlineOnline gaming is the fourth-largest segment in Indian media and entertainment sector newlineafter showing unprecedented growth in the last two years. Online gaming is also a newlinefocus area of the government s ambitious AVGC mission. This massive growth has newlinebeen augmented due to the availability of low-cost internet and affordable smart newlinephones. Consumers pick their favourite games from online platforms. Success and newlinefailure of online gaming platforms depend on how loyal or sticky a customer is. The newlinestickiness factor is dependent on a gamer s behavioural pattern. Theoretically, when a newlinegamer is propelled by hedonic motivation and finds utilitarian value, he or she newlineremains loyal to a platform. In India, there is no in-depth research on what motivates newlinegamers to remain sticky to a platform. This research, typically in the realm of a binary newlineclassification problem, is an attempt to examine how gamers behave when it comes to newlinechoosing between one or more than one platform. From economic ability to an newlineoverwhelming desire to play, a plethora of factors have been mathematically newlineinvestigated to understand what prompts stickiness. The study has adopted a mixture newlineof conventional statistical tool like Pearson s correlation and industry-based newlinemathematical calculations like Weight of Evidence (WoE), Information Value (IV) newlineand Cramer s V to identify the strongest predictors and associations between newlinevariables. This study not only has implications for the industry but also hints at issues newlinelike addiction that can be detrimental to the society at large. newline