Bingo mobile games market growth at 20%; end user spending at $150 mn in Q1 2020: Wilhelm Taht

Bingo Bash, one of the world’s top mobile games, from GSN Games has now entered its tenth year of live operations. GSN Games is part of Game Show Network, which is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

To celebrate Bingo Bash’s 10^th Anniversary, GSN Games revealed key milestones and major infrastructure changes, including:

• 70 million players since 2010, collectively daubing over 90 billion numbers to date
• 50,000+ years spent cumulatively in-game
• With 250 billion chips bet, making it the No. 1 all-time highest-grossing mobile game to originate from India (verified by Newzoo)
• Complete transition of the game to the Unity real-time 3D engine

According to Newzoo, a leading games markets insights and analytics firm, Bingo Bash is the most successful video game to have originated in India.

Originally created by Bitrhymes (later renamed to Bash Gaming) in 2010 as a social game on Facebook, Bingo Bash’s success enabled the team to secure investment from San Francisco’s Tandem Capital to help them scale their workforce and bring the game to mobile devices, where its continued success led to the $165 million acquisition of Bash Gaming by GSN Games in 2014.

Speaking on the mobile gaming landscape in India, Peter Warman, CEO, and Co-founder, Newzoo, commented, “When it comes to mobile gaming, there is no doubt that India is one of the hottest countries on the planet – not only from a consumer and market-size standpoint, but also from a local industry perspective.”

He further pointed out, “Several games developed in India have grossed multiple millions in lifetime revenue, both in their home market as well as abroad. There’s no question that Bingo Bash is the #1 video game of Indian origin on mobile by revenue and, to the best of my knowledge, the #1 grossing video game from India overall.”

Warman added, “For those who follow the Indian mobile games market, the most profitable title might be a bit of a surprise. It is not the much-acclaimed Teen Patti franchise that tops the charts, but Bingo Bash, published globally by GSN Games – and the margin by which it leads is actually very significant. On mobile storefronts alone, Bingo Bash has generated between four and five times more revenue in its lifetime than the Teen Patti games. And that doesn’t even begin to factor in the significant business that Bingo Bash has done on social platforms like Facebook over the years.”

Addressing the media in a virtual press conference, Wilhelm Taht, Senior Vice-President and General Manager, GSN Games, and Srivatsa Narasimhan, Vice-President, Bingo Bash, GSN Games, shared a bullish outlook for the mobile gaming industry in India.

Citing insights from Newzoo, Taht highlighted the fact that the global mobile gaming industry generated $68.2 billion in revenues in 2019, which was greater than the earnings of the Box Office ($42.5 billion) and recorded music ($21.5 billion) combined for that year. The revenue figures are just from mobile games that do not carry third party ads.

Adding further, he said, “If we look at the entire video game industry (Mobile + PC + Console), then mobile gaming is the fastest growing category at 12 per cent CAGR and is estimated to touch $96 billion in revenues by 2022. Within mobile gaming, social casino games account for 6 per cent of the total revenues and are estimated to be a $6 billion market in 2020. Bingo is one of the fastest growing games in this category within social casino at 20 per cent growth YOY, with end user spending reaching $150 million in Q1 2020.”

“India has played an incredibly important role in this growth, thanks to both its players and creators. Bingo Bash’s success owes a great deal to its Indian origins, and to have that success validated by Newzoo is a tremendous way to kick off our celebrations as Bingo Bash enters its second decade,” Taht said.

Narasimhan noted here, “It’s not uncommon for a major publisher to purchase the rights to an IP and transition its work to their existing studios, but GSN Games understood that Bingo Bash’s success was intrinsically linked to the people who built it. Bash Gaming’s team continues to function as the Bangalore operations of GSN Games, with 250+ people working full-time on Bingo Bash and other games in the GSN Games portfolio.”

Players who want to take part in Bingo Bash’s birthday celebration can participate in a number of activities on the official Facebook page, including a cake bake-off, a short birthday video about the game, and more.