Lumikai and Google have recently released a report on the Indian gaming market. The report sheds light on the current state of the gaming industry in India.

The Indian gaming market size will reach $3.1 billion in 2023. At the same time, mobile games account for only $1.1 billion. RMG (real-money gaming) games take up the rest of the volume.

  • In October, India announced the adoption of a 28% tax on deposits in RMG games. This put the whole industry at risk.
  • That’s why Lumikai and Google is predicting a very subdued annual growth of 5% for the entire segment until 2028.
  • Mobile games, on the other hand, will have to show explosive growth. The casual games segment is projected to grow from $0.7 billion in 2023 to $2.3 billion in 2028 (26% compound annual growth rate). In the case of midcore and hardcore projects, it is expected to grow from $0.4 billion to $2.7 billion in 2028 (49% compound annual growth rate).
  • Interestingly, payment growth in games outside of Battlegrounds Mobile India and Garena: Free Fire has been counted separately. It is noted that players spent $323 million on in-game purchases in other games in 2023. The growth by 2022 was 37%.
  • If the data in the report is homogeneous, the two largest Battle Royale games in India account for about $180 million in revenue per year.
  • Lumikai and Google believe that in-game transaction volume in games in India will grow almost 7 times in 5 years. Advertising revenue will grow 3 times.
  • There are now 568 million players in India, of which only 140 million are paying players. On average, they spend 10-12 hours a week playing games.
  • 59% of players are male and 41% are female.
  • Most of the players (50%) are young adults between the ages of 18 and 30.
  • The number of players in India from non-major (by India’s standards) cities is growing. They account for 66% of the total audience in 2023.
  • India is the second market after China in terms of game downloads (15.4 billion in a year).
  • Lumikai and Google note that in 2023 the average annual ARPPU per user from India is $19.2. In 2019, that figure was $2.

Read the full report here

 512