Indian Gaming Sector Overview
Dec 2024
Akash Roy
6291921382 | [email protected]
India’s Online Gaming Market Overview
Industry Overview Evolving Landscape
• India's online gaming segment is experiencing
Advanced Technology
remarkable growth with robust gaming community of Incorporation of blockchain
Empower players to engage Removes the need for high-end
~425mn gamers—second globally after China technology in gaming grants players
with objects, manipulate virtual gaming hardware, enabling users ownership of digital assets, including
• India continues to be a ‘mobile first’ market, with 94% environments, delivering a to access games across a range non-fungible tokens (NFTs), in-game
of its gamer base engaging in mobile gaming real-life experience and fosters of devices without the necessity items, characters - this advancement
a stronger sense of connection of investing in costly gaming
• Despite the rapid increase in game consumption, Cloud empowers game developers to
India's online gaming revenue is still merely 1.1% of
AR/VR and camaraderie among consoles or PCs Blockchain establish tokenized economies
players Gaming
global online gaming revenue within the game framework
• The segment has attracted investments of
INR229bn between FY20 and FY24 YTD from both
domestic and foreign sources
Government
Rules 2021: Amended to add provisions for online gaming to
Key Players The Government of India has authorized 100% FDI in
Support
protect online gamers from harmful content and addiction – a
the gaming sector - opening opportunities for gaming
movehailed by stakeholders like InMobi Group and MPL as it
startup founders to secure funding not only from
recognizes online gaming intermediaries and distinguishes them
FDI domestic investors but also from foreign investors
IT rules from gambling
India gaming market is estimated to grow from INR164bn in FY23 to INR332bn in FY28 & gamers are expected to
Key Statistics increase from 425mn in FY23 to 538mn in FY28 based on technological advancements and government support
Every 3rd user
Every 2nd internet conducting
user is a gamer transactions online is
a paying gamer
India Gaming Market Size (in INR bn) No of Gamers (in mn)
25% 28% 30% 32% 33% 34%
15.4bn 25%
Games downloaded Paying Users 332 538
289 513
488
254 465
224 443
200 425
11 hours/week 164
$19.2
Time spent per
ARPU FY23 FY24E FY25E FY26E FY27E FY28E FY23 FY24E FY25E FY26E FY27E FY28E
active user on gaming
Source: EY Report, HSBC Report, Macquarie Report and Web Search.
Share of paying gamers
1
Key Revenue Drivers
1
• 60% Indian gaming population is between 18 to 24 years (GenZ) and they are going to Demographics of India vs major global gaming areas
be key driving population ;however Gen-Z doesn’t have high disposable income to
spend on gaming 48% 59% 61% 50% GenZ +
Large Youth 62% 63%
Millennial
• Hence its important to target 25-40 years (millennials) who are digitally matured and
Population have the affordability to spend on gaming
52% 41% 39% 50% 38% 37%
India China Europe & India China Europe &
Rest
• India has greater proportion of youth population (GenZ + millennials) – the gaming NAM NAM
age group compared to global counterparts of China , Europe and North America FY21 FY30
2 • Increasing affordability of smartphone which in turns leads to Indian Mobile Data Consumption Device Mix and Smartphone Penetration
gaming making phones preferred device for gaming (GB/month/subscriber) 24.1 (mn)
Rising 756
868 897
719
Smartphone & 408
• High speed internet and abysmally low data cost helped 10.2
490
465
Internet internet penetration in India- data usage resulting from
633
0.6 1.8 403 489
Penetration 0.8GB/month in 2014 to 24.1GB/month in 2023 – making way for 86
266
FY14 FY17 FY20 FY23 FY14 FY17 FY20 FY23
online gaming Smart Phones Feature Phones
3 FY25 Expected Revenue
No of Gamers by Segment
(mn)
• Hard-core and mid-core gamers spend more time on gaming
Sharp growth of 500 Casual gamers
and often play fewer games for longer times
mid-core & hard- Mid-core gamers
core gamers • No of mid-core and hard-core gamers are expected to 345 100
Hard-core gamers
increase 3 times improving monetization in this industry 25 30
10
2020A 2025E
4 • No of casual gamers is equal to 10x the number of mid-core and hard-core gamers Evolution of gaming revenue from FY20 to FY25
• Successful monetization of this user base could drive sharp growth in gaming
Monetization revenue Ads
through in-app 35% 25%
• In-app purchases(IAP) have become a convenient way of monetizing casual
purchases 65%
gamers and converting them into serious gamers 75% IAPs
• In-app purchases is expected to grow at 40%CAGR from FY20 to FY25
FY20 FY25
Source: EY Report, HSBC Report, Macquarie Report and Web Search.
