According to a report, the Indian gaming market could grow from $3.8 billion in 2024 to $9.2 billion by 2029. Lumikai.
This corresponds to a compound annual growth rate of 20%. Lumikai, an Indian venture capital fund focused on gaming, also said India’s $3.8 billion gaming market is about 30% of the broader $12.5 billion new media market.
Gaming is India’s fastest growing new media sector, just behind the $3.9 billion video and over-the-top media market (based on the fiscal year ended March 31). Overall, the new media market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 16%, Lumikai founding general partner Salone Sehgal said in an interview with GamesBeat.
Such growth is similar to the growth of China’s gaming sector decades ago, making India the next hot market for gaming investors to follow, Sehgal said. Aditya Deshpande, senior investment associate at Lumikai, said in an interview with GamesBeat: believes that gaming is overtaking India’s proud Bollywood film industry.
Lumikai’s own growth reflects the growth of the Indian gaming market. When it started in 2020, there were 25 gaming companies in India. But over five years, Sehgal said Lumikai has evaluated more than 2,300 prospects with Indian gaming entrepreneurs.
The Lumikai India State Interactive Media and Gaming Report will be launched at Lumikai Insignia, Lumikai’s interactive media and gaming summit for limited partners.
Key statistics
According to the report, the percentage of female gamers increased from 41% to 44% out of a total of 591 million gamers in India (up 23 million from the previous year). And in 2024, we added more than 8 million new paid users, bringing the total number of paid gamers to 148 million.
Sehgal said the average weekly gaming time for Indian gamers has increased by 30% to 13 hours. This was twice the amount of time spent on social platforms. Average revenue per paid user was $22, an increase of 15% in one year. Approximately 66% of gamers were from non-metropolitan cities, and 43% of gamers were first-time earners in the 18-30 age group.
Driven by mid-core games, in-app purchases grew 41% year over year and continue to be the fastest growing part of the $3.8 billion revenue pie in FY2024.
“Mid-core games have emerged to capitalize on the huge demand for mid-core in the Indian market,” said Sehgal.
The report states that 64% of paying users who play real money gambling (RMG) also pay for mid-core games.
This suggests a high degree of overlap between gamer personas and gamer preference shifts.
India is the world’s second-largest mobile games market by downloads, with 15.2 billion downloads, three times more than Brazil and the United States combined. Additionally, 25% of gamers say they spent the same amount of money on games this year as they did in 2023. 83% prefer UPI or digital wallets for in-game payments.
India also saw a 20% increase in time spent on casual games in FY24. Users spend 25% more time on interactive social media/streaming platforms compared to passive social platforms. Additionally, 47% of users are more tolerant of ads and prefer microtransaction-based in-app purchases to avoid paying for a subscription.
When it comes to mobile platforms, Android accounts for around 90% of the Indian market, where smartphones can cost between $200 and $400. Desfande said most games are played on smartphones, with PC and console games accounting for a few percent of the market.
When it comes to esports, Sehgal said that while revenue is still a small part of the overall pie, viewership continues to grow rapidly.
methodology
The report includes a primary survey of around 3,000 mobile users across India. And it was developed in collaboration with Google and Deloitte. Lumikai’s analysis is based on third-party analytical data providers, secondary research, Lumikai’s own data, primary research, and expert interviews. Game estimates include subscriptions, in-app purchases, and advertising revenue.
“We understand both urban markets, rural markets and gender demographics,” Sehgal said.
Growth of Lumikai
Lumikai is part of India’s leading interactive media companies, including Elo Elo (India’s live social entertainment platform), Bombay Play (India’s global hyper-social casual gaming studio), All Star Games (casual sports gaming studio), and Studio. We are supporting. Sirah (a mid-core strategy game studio), Supernova (a real-time, interactive, personalized AI tutor disrupting education technology), Autovrse (India’s fastest-growing AR/VR company building solutions for industrial training), Vobble (India’s first interactive audio platform for kids) ), Mayhem Studios (building India’s battle royale game), and more.
Mayhem Studios’ game is interesting in that it is a battle royale game that focuses on the Indian setting and culture. This trend toward culturally relevant games Game analyst and author Matthew Ball says it’s on the rise in certain regions. metaverse.
“These kinds of games take time to build. What Battleground Mobile India (formerly PUBG Mobile) taught us is that there is a huge (opportunity) in the market,” Sehgal said. he said. “Our strategy to support Indian gaming resonates as more people say they want to play IP that reflects Indian culture.”
Despande said, “There’s more diversity in terms of indigenous games that are trying to compete against global giants. It’s just a matter of development cycles. So a lot of these games are currently being created.”
Many of the entrepreneurs are emerging from staffing agencies that take advantage of India’s low development costs. Now those entrepreneurs are striking out on their own to create their own games. There are also many Indian diaspora founders who are returning to India to set up new companies in their home country. And a wave of strategic companies and investors are eyeing India as the next big major market. Over time, this should lead to a healthy acquisition market in India.
“Smartphones have completely revolutionized the types of games people play,” says Deshpande. “Almost two-thirds of the population we surveyed consume one or two gigabytes of mobile data a day, and that’s because our data prices are among the lowest in the world. ”
Lumikai’s Insignia
Speakers at the Lumikai Insignia event include Oscar winner SS Rajamouli, Abdullah Alorainy of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (which has invested $37 billion in gaming), and Crysis co-developer and Crytek founder Cevat. Yerli and chip design veteran Raja Koduri. Graphics/CPU design at Intel, AMD, and Apple.
