Indian Gaming Industry - Growth, Trends, Impact of COVID-19, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Indian Gaming Industry - Growth, Trends, Impact of COVID-19, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Indian gaming market was estimated to be valued at USD 1.89 billion in 2019, and it is expected to reach USD 4.01 billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 14.01% over the forecast period 2020 – 2025.

Key Highlights

• With one of the world’s largest youth populations, India is expected to become one of the world’s leading market destinations in the gaming industry. The growth in the country is driven by the growing younger population, higher disposable incomes, the introduction of new gaming genres, and the rapidly increasing number of smartphone and tablet users.
• Game developers are also continuously striving to enhance the gamer’s experience, and launching new games for diverse console/platforms, such as PlayStation, Xbox, and Windows PC, which are provided to the gamers through these devices.
• As per AppsFlyer’s report released in April 2020, India has been experiencing a gradual increase in game app installations and sessions since March 7, when the number of reported COVID-19 cases in the country started to climb. User sessions were reported to have increased by 65%, and organic installations by 50% in April 2020.

Key Market TrendsMobile Gaming is Expected to Register a Significant Growth

• Data costs in the country have fallen exponentially in recent times, making it one of the cheapest markets offering data at low costs. This has positively impacted the number of Internet and smartphone users in the country. According to GroupM, India alone hosts nearly 700 million unique mobile phone subscribers, which comprises 451 million Internet users.
• Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Indian citizens are spending higher amount of time on their mobile phones and playing games. The study from CMR also found that, every five serious gamers in the country are playing around four hours more than before lockdown. Another key trend in terms of gaming in the country is that about 15% of mobile gamers shifted from playing freemium games to paid games.
• Revenue generated through in-app purchase of games on Google Play Store increased significantly during 2020 compared to the previous year. Over the course of the pandemic, the Play Store has seen a spike in gaming time, with more users moving from freemium to paid gaming apps. Android is expected to be the major driver behind the growth in the adoption of mobile phones in the country. Moreover, the OS is expected to hold prominent share in smart TVs in the country, with Xiaomi being the major player.

Competitive Landscape

India’s strong and booming IT Sector is one of the key driving factors for the gaming market. According to the publisher, India Briefing, which publishes business news and guides concerning foreign direct investment, the number of online game developers in India rose to 275 in 2019, up from 25 in 2010. Further, the growing pool of talented IT engineers, India is also becoming a popular backend development center for gaming companies. Top Game developers in India are Red Apple Technologies, Octro, 99 Games, Moonfrog Labs, 2Pi Interactive Pvt Ltd, Games 2Win, Dhruva Interactive, Creatiosoft and Dream11.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

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