Behind the curtain of… gaming monitors

How big is the gaming monitors industry in the Middle East?

The gaming monitors market in the Middle East and the United Arab Emirates is huge, untapped and the fastest growing market for BenQ. Though there are no concrete statistics available, but as per our experience, the industry is increasing many folds each year.

In terms of percentage growth for gaming monitors within the region, this is what we saw year-on-year in the last quarter –

• United Arab Emirates: 256 per cent
• Saudi Arabia: 436 per cent
• Overall Gulf countries: 155 per cent
• Egypt: 660 per cent
• Turkey: 163 per cent

Where do you see most demand within the region?

The region is seeing increased demand due to the burgeoning growth of gaming cafés and gaming tournaments. There is also a growing number of Arab gaming enthusiasts (mostly rich and young), increased awareness over the past few quarters and a healthy business segment for gaming resellers.

The Middle East gaming industry is expected to grow to $4.4bn in 2022, according to a recent report by Strategy& and Abu Dhabi’s twofour54. Most of the demand is from the youth segment aged between 15 to 22.

With the shift to mobile devices, how do you continue to stay relevant?

BenQ gaming monitors are mainly for casual and hardcore gamers who play titles like League of Legends and DOTA 2 where screen sizes of 27 inches and 24 inches are used. Thus the shift to smaller screens is not going to have an impact on this industry.

What are the other challenges that the industry faces?

Not tapping the right buyers, keeping pace with the launch of higher resolution and bigger size screens and penetrating more gaming segments are some of the challenges. We also need to organise stronger tournaments, keep gamer motivation high and discover new opportunities.

Finding new markets, working on a stronger refresh rate and motion blur reduction, and educating young gamers are some of the other challenges that the industry faces.