Andar Bahar, Rummy and Teen Patti are golden cash cow of India’s mobile-first gaming market

Andar Bahar - Rummy - Teen Patti - golden cash cow - India mobile - first gaming market - Rummy - Taxscan

A new research conducted by ENV Media has found that Andar Bahar, Teen Patti and Rummy are the anchors of casual Indian entertainment—the golden cash cow of the Asian country’s growing mobile-first gaming market. 

Andar Bahar, which is said to have originated in the south of India, is one of the most popular card games in the country alongside Teen Patti and Rummy. The game is simple and is known as a “family get-together” card game.

Teen Patti, on the other hand, is described as an extremely simple card game to play. Many people call it Indian poker–more fun and a little bit faster to play than Poker. Like its description, playing real cash Teen Patti games is very easy. There are many variations of the game available at online casinos: most popular is the standard game that pits players against other players or against the dealer. There’s also the Video Poker style, in which players try to create the best hand possible; the Joker Teen Patti, which features a wild card; and the fast and frenetic game of Lowest card joker.

Teen Pati ‘valuable’ in India online casino promotions

The ENV Media report, titled Data-Based Profiling of Indian Product Preferences, noted the “certain patterns” that are shaping India’s online casino market along with its bottom-up mechanics, which explains why Andar Bahar and Teen Patti “are the most valuable games when it comes to starting or promoting an online casino” in the country. 

“Industry data shows that people tend to search for the TP [Teen Patti] and AB [Andar Bahar] Apps more than this is the case for “Western” casino products. This is due to the desired convenience of having a quick go at their favourite game, even offline, between other daily tasks. The stability and possibility of playing them online for real money are also straightforward benefits pushing up App searches for both games,” according to the ENV Media report.

Teen Patti games are the top 3 free casino game apps on Google Play, placing a total of 8 apps in the top 10, with more than 100 million downloads. In the fourth place is a “scratch card” app, while a Rummy app comes in at 6th place.

A Teen Patti app also ranks 6th among all top-grossing apps on Google Play in India, according to the ENV Media report, while Rummy follows closely the leading Poker app in the card segment alone.

Meanwhile, Google search trends for the July-August 2020 period (after easing of COVID-19 restrictions) showed that “Rummy” outperformed “Casino” searches by at least three times. Searches for “Teen Patti” also outpaced “Casino” searches by more than four times, while “Andar Bahar” is comparable to “Slot” in monthly user searches.

The popularity of these casual mobile games is not dampened by the ongoing attempts to clamp down on the games. Recently, the Delhi High Court has instructed the government to treat the public interest litigation (PIL) against sites and apps “allegedly facilitating online gambling as representation,” Taxscan reported, Some of the mobile games named in the petition include Teen Patti Gold, Poker Rummy, Adda52 Poker, PokerStars, Zynga Poker, and Texas Hold’em Poker.

Anchors of casual Indian entertainment

Still, there’s no denying that these mobile games–including Andar Bahar, Teen Patti, and Rummy–are “the anchors of casual Indian entertainment.” According to the ENV Media report,

“Such traditional card games have heavily influenced the local mobile gaming industry and social networks, with their demand and acceptance not likely to decrease. There are certain Western games with an Indian touch which are quite well accepted. But Indians love desi games first and foremost. These are “family” games that can be played and enjoyed with people of all age groups and players think little whether to engage in paid sessions if they like the game.”

For foreign online casino games operators and affiliates looking to enter India’s growing mobile market, ENV Media has this piece of advice: do not ignore some of the top 10 grossing games in the country.

“Teen Patti, Rummy and Andar Bahar are truly a golden cash cow when it comes to running a quality service dedicated to the Indian online gaming market. Catering to those will allow online casino operators to exploit better their existing offer and extend their customer base considerably.”

Learn more about Andar Bahar and Teen Patti, and how Western casino operators and affiliates can tap on these key ENV Media research findings to help improve their efficiency and sell a wider range of products here.

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