According to a report, the Indian gaming market could grow from $3.8 billion in 2024 to $9.2 billion in 2029. Lumikai.
This represents a compound annual growth rate of 20%. Lumikai, an Indian enterprise capital fund focused on gaming, also said India’s $3.8 billion gaming market is about 30% of the broader $12.5 billion latest media market.
Gaming is the fastest-growing latest media segment in India, just shy of the $3.9 billion video and over-the-top media market (based on fiscal yr periods ending March 31). Overall, the latest media market is growing at a compound annual rate of 16%, said Salone Sehgal, founding general partner of Lumikai, in an interview with GamesBeat.
Such growth is similar to the growth of the gaming industry in China a few many years ago, making India one other hot market for gaming investors to pursue, Sehgal said. Aditya Deshpande, senior investment advisor at Lumikai, said in an interview with GamesBeat. believes that gaming is in the strategy of overtaking India’s vaunted Bollywood film industry.
Lumikai’s growth reflects the growth of the Indian gaming market. In 2020, when it began, there have been 25 gaming firms operating in India. However, in five years, Lumikai has assessed greater than 2,300 leads with Indian gaming entrepreneurs, Sehgal said.
The Lumikai India State Interactive Media and Gaming Report was presented at the Lumikai Insignia Interactive Media and Gaming Summit for Lumikai Limited Partners.
Key statistics
The report shows that of India’s 591 million gamers (an increase of 23 million from last yr), the percentage of ladies gamers has increased from 41% to 44%. More than eight million latest paying users were added in fiscal yr 2024, bringing the total variety of paying players to 148 million.
Sehgal said Indian players have seen a 30% increase in average weekly playing time to 13 hours. That’s twice as much time spent on social media platforms. Average revenue per paying user is $22, up 15% over the yr. About 66% of players were from non-metro cities, and 43% of players were 18 to 30-year-olds and first-time earners.
In-app purchases, driven by mid-range games, grew 41% year-over-year and proceed to be the fastest-growing a part of the $3.8 billion revenue pie for fiscal yr 2024.
“Mid-core gaming is emerging to cater to the very strong mid-core appetite in the Indian market,” Sehgal said.
The report shows that 64% of paying users who play real money gambling games (RMG) also pay for mid-range games,
suggesting a high degree of overlap between player personalities and migration of player preferences.
India is the world’s second-largest mobile gaming market by downloads, with 15.2 billion, or three times the variety of downloads than Brazil and the United States. 25% of gamers said they have spent money on gaming this yr, similar to FY23, with 83% preferring UPI or digital wallets for making in-game payments.
India also saw a 20% increase in time spent on casual gaming in FY2024. Users spend 25% more time on interactive social media/streaming platforms compared to passive social media platforms. 47% of users tolerate promoting and avoid paying for subscriptions, preferring in-app purchases based on microtransactions.
In terms of mobile platforms, Android accounts for about 90% of the market in India, where smartphones can cost between $200 and $400. Most games are played on smartphones, with PC and console games accounting for a few percent of the market, Desphande said.
When it comes to esports, revenue is still a small slice of the overall pie, but Sehgal said viewership continues to grow rapidly.
Methodology
The report covers primary research on nearly 3,000 cell phone users across India. It was developed together with Google and Deloitte. Lumikai’s evaluation is based on third-party analytics providers, secondary research, proprietary Lumikai data, primary research and expert interviews. Game estimates include subscription, in-app purchases and promoting revenue.
“We understand both urban and rural markets and gender demographics,” Sehgal said.
Lumikai development
Lumikai has supported some of India’s leading interactive media firms including Elo Elo (India’s live social entertainment platform), Bombay Play (a hyper-social casual gaming studio from India to the world), All Star Games (a casual sports gaming studio), Studio Sirah (mid-tier strategy gaming studio), Supernova (interactive, personalized real-time AI tutors revolutionizing edtech), Autovrse (India’s fastest growing AR/VR business creation solutions for industrial training), Vobble (India’s first interactive platform audio for children ), Mayhem Studios (creating an Indian Battle Royale game).
Mayhem Studios’ game is interesting because it is a battle royale game focused on the Indian setting and culture. Such trends towards culturally relevant games according to Matthew Ball, game analyst and creator of the book.
“Creating these kinds of games takes time. “What Battleground Mobile India (formerly PUBG Mobile) has taught us is that there is a huge (opportunity) in the market,” Sehgal said. “Our strategy of supporting Indian games (resonates) as increasingly people say they want to play IP games that reflect our culture.”
Despande said: “There is more diversity when it comes to domestic games trying to take on the global giants. It’s a matter of development cycles themselves. That’s why many of those games are currently in development.
Many entrepreneurs come from work-for-hire firms that have taken advantage of India’s low development costs. Now these entrepreneurs are trying to create their very own games on their very own. There are also many Indian diaspora founders who return to India to build latest firms in their homeland. There is a wave of strategic firms and investors who see India as the next big market. Over time, this could lead to a healthy acquisition market in India.
“The smartphone has completely revolutionized the type of games people play,” Deshpande said. “Nearly two-thirds of the population we surveyed uses one or two gigabytes of mobile data per day, and that’s because we have some of the cheapest data rates in the world.”
Lumikai insignia
Speakers at the Lumikai Insignia event will include: Oscar winner SS Rajamouli, Abdullah Alorainy of the Arab Public Investment Fund (which invests $37 billion in games), Crysis co-creator and Crytek founder Cevat Yerli, chip design veteran Raja Koduri, who led graphics/CPU design at Intel, AMD and Apple.