Bangladesh's mobile games industry is growing

The country's mobile games industry is growing

Keeping pace with the world, the market of mobile games in our country is also growing day by day. According to 2020 figures, the mobile gaming industry worth about 80 billion has about 2.5 billion active players who regularly play a variety of mobile games. Bangladesh ranks 7th in terms of global population and the Bangladesh market is an important one in the global market of games as a large tagret audience among the population of this country is the youth.

New jobs are being created in this arena with foreign investment coming in.

In 2019, India's leading mobile game maker Moonfrog Labs invested in Bangladesh and established its affiliate Ulka Games Limited here. Stillfront Group, a Swedish-based mobile games maker, has recently acquired a 100 % stake in Moonfrog Labs of India and their Bangladesh affiliate Ulka Games Limited for around Tk 750 crore. Through this, Ulka Games Limited was established as the first international standard mobile gaming company in Bangladesh.

Image of Bangladesh

Over the past few years, Bangladeshi companies have been making relentless efforts on their own initiative to capture this huge market. But sadly, our contribution to this potential market is only 50-60 million, well below 1%. Some young entrepreneurs are representing Bangladesh in the international gaming market through their own efforts and plans.

In the meantime, games like Ludo Club, Tin Patti Gold, Adda, Carrom etc. of Moonfrog Labs and Ulka Games Limited have become very popular all over the world. In all, more than 16 crore games have been downloaded worldwide. Alpha Potato, another old and renowned game studio in Bangladesh, have already created several popular games in association with their publisher Lion Studios. Notable among these are Battle Ballet, Cake Master 3D, Icecream Run, Pon shop Master, Prank Master 3D. The games already have more than 14 crore downloads.

Another well-known studio Hamba Games has released 3 popular games in a joint venture with their publisher Tasty Pill. Pick Me Up 3D, Line Color 3D and Road Race 3D, downloaded around 200 million times. Rise Up Labs was the first to get acquainted with their tap-tap game. They are currently working with Robi on a game called Treasure Island and Meena and UNICEF. Free Pixel Games is the oldest studio in Bangladesh that has been working well with fantasy games for a long time. Also among the newcomers, Thunder Games is working with well-known foreign publishing companies and trying to come up with new games.

Game Monetization

Ershadul Haque, founder and CEO of Rise Up Labs, said, "Gaming studios make money from their games through advertising, subscriptions and in-app purchases. A certain amount is earned from different types of ads during the game. Moreover, all mobile games usually have a virtual store. Players purchase virtual products or subscriptions from this store to enhance their gaming experience. This is where the game earns the most. The more popular a game is, the more its virtual products or subscriptions are purchased." 

The writer is an ICT journalist