With over 500 million gamers playing across PC, smartphones, and cloud gaming platforms, it’s a safe bet to say that the Indian gaming market has reached its all-time high with nearly $2.6 billion in revenue this year. According to a report, the figure is expected to quadruple by the end of 2027.
There are now over 120 million paid gamers in the country, each contributing $20 in revenue per user, as per a report by Lumikai – an interactive media venture capital fund. In FY22, India became the world’s largest mobile games consumer, with over 15 billion downloads.
Justin Shriram Keeling, the founding general partner at Lumikai, stated during the India Game Developers Conference Summit in Hyderabad that “India crossed half a billion gamers in FY22, up from 450 million the year prior.”
“Industry growth is expected to be fuelled by a rapidly increasing gamer base, higher conversion to paid users, and increasing sophistication of Indian gamers,” he added further. Among the various games, mid-core ones like BGMI and Free Fire were among the fastest-growing category.
This category achieved annual growth of 32 percent with a combined gross revenue of $550 million. The report states that around 48 percent of gamers spend money on these mid-core games, and a staggering 65 percent of players have claimed to engage in an in-app purchase.
Talking about the gaming companies in India, they’re on track to raise around $513 million this financial year. The gaming sector funding has grown by 380 percent since 2019, and the growth is assumed to be 23 percent from 2020.
Recent findings even reveal that Web3 is emerging as a popular game technology, with around 30 percent of Indian Web3 companies engaging in gaming. Web3-based games have also been said to raise over $400 million in funding in 2019-22.
There’s also a rising popularity for India-based content, with over 80 percent of gamers showing interest in playing games based on Indian intellectual property. The report also revealed that female gamers are on the rise, with a male: female ratio of 60:40.
Salone Sehgal, Lumikai’s founding general partner, said that the last 28 months had been watershed years in attracting venture capital investment of over $2.6 billion in Indian gaming. This sustained momentum should further drive entrepreneurial ambition and innovation in the Indian gaming industry.
Lumikai has backed nine startups in the gaming industry, including Loco, Bombay Play, and Elo Elo.
