India’s sport market might develop from $3.8 billion in 2024 to $9.2 billion by 2029, in keeping with a report by Lumikai.
That represents a 20% compound annual development fee. Lumikai, a enterprise capital fund in India centered on video games, additionally mentioned that India’s $3.8 billion gaming market is about 30% of its broader $12.5 billion new media market.
Gaming is India’s the fastest-growing new media phase, and it’s simply shy of the $3.9 billion video and over-the-top media market (based mostly on the fiscal yr intervals ending March 31). Total, the brand new media market is rising at a compound annual development fee of 16%, mentioned Salone Sehgal, founding common accomplice at Lumikai, in an interview with GamesBeat.
Such development is just like China’s development in gaming a few a long time in the past, making India the subsequent scorching market that sport traders ought to comply with, Sehgal mentioned. Aditya Deshpande, senior funding affiliate at Lumikai, mentioned in an interview with GamesBeat. believes that gaming is within the strategy of surpassing India’s vaunted Bollywood movie trade.
Lumikai’s personal development has mirrored the Indian gaming market’s development. Again in 2020, when it began, there have been 25 sport corporations in India. However over the course of 5 years, Lumikai has evaluated greater than 2,300 leads with Indian sport entrepreneurs, Sehgal mentioned.
The Lumikai State of India Interactive Media and Gaming Report is being unveiled on the Lumikai Insignia interactive media and gaming summit for Lumikai’s restricted companions.
Key statistics
The report discovered that out of the entire of 591 million avid gamers (up 23 million from a yr in the past) in India, feminine avid gamers rose from 41% to 44%. And in fiscal yr 2024, greater than eight million new paying customers have been added, taking whole paying avid gamers to 148 million.
Sehgal mentioned Indian avid gamers have seen a 30% enhance in common weekly gaming time to 13 hours. That was double the time spent on social platforms. Common income per paying consumer of $22, which was up 15% in a yr. About 66% of avid gamers have been from non-metro cities, with 43% of avid gamers being first-time earners within the 18-year-old to 30-year-old age group.
In-app purchases, propelled by mid-core video games, grew by 41% year-on-year, and continues to be the quickest rising slice out of the $3.8 billion income pie for fiscal yr 2024.
“The mid core video games emerge to faucet into that very giant mid-core urge for food within the India market,” mentioned Sehgal.
The report mentioned 64% of paying customers who play real-money playing (RMG) additionally pay for mid-core video games,
suggesting a excessive diploma of overlap in gamer personas and migrating preferences of avid gamers.
India is the world’s second-largest cell gaming market when it comes to downloads, with 15.2 billion, or 3 times the mixed quantity of Brazil and the U.S. And 25% of avid gamers mentioned they’ve spent cash in video games this yr, per FY23, with 83% preferring UPI or digital wallets to make in-game funds.
India additionally noticed a 20% enhance in time spent on informal video games in fiscal 2024. Customers spend 25% extra time on interactive social media/streaming platforms in comparison with passive social platforms. And 47% of customers are ad-tolerant to keep away from paying for subscriptions with choice for micro-transaction based mostly in-app purchases.
By way of cell platforms, Android is about 90% of the market in India, the place smartphones could value $200 to $400. Most video games are performed on smartphones, with PC and console video games a couple of p.c of the market, Desphande mentioned.
As for esports, revenues are nonetheless a small slice of the general pie, however Sehgal mentioned viewership continues to rise quick.
Methodology
The report consists of major analysis protecting practically 3,000 cell customers throughout India. And it was developed with Google and Deloitte. Lumikai’s evaluation relies on third social gathering analytics knowledge suppliers, secondary analysis, Lumikai proprietary knowledge, major survey and skilled interviews. The gaming estimates embody subscription, in-app purcahses, and advert revenues.
“We perceive each the city markets, the agricultural markets and the gender demographics as effectively,” Sehgal mentioned.
Lumikai’s development
Lumikai has backed a few of India’s main interactive media corporations together with, Elo Elo (India’s reside social leisure platform), Bombay Play (hyper-social, informal gaming studio from India for the world), All Star Video games (informal sports activities gaming studio), Studio Sirah (mid-core technique gaming studio), Supernova (real-time, interactive, personalised AI tutors disrupting edtech), Autovrse (India’s quickest rising AR/VR firm constructing options for industrial coaching), Vobble (India’s first interactive audio platform for youngsters), Mayhem Studios (constructing Indian battle royale sport) amongst others.
The Mayhem Studios sport is fascinating in that it’s a battle royale sport centered on Indian setting and tradition. Such traits towards culturally related video games for sure areas are on the rise, in keeping with Matthew Ball, gaming analyst and creator of The Metaverse.
“These sport sort of video games take time to construct. What Battleground Cellular India (previously PUBG Cellular) taught us is that there’s a huge (alternative) available in the market,” Sehgal mentioned. “Our technique to again Indian video games (resonates) as we more and more right here folks saying they wish to play IP which displays our tradition.”
Despande mentioned, “There’s extra variety when it comes to indigenous video games making an attempt to tackle world giants. It’s a matter of simply improvement cycles. So a whole lot of these video games at the moment are within the strategy of being made.”
Lots of the entrepreneurs are popping out of work-for-hire corporations that took benefit of India’s low prices for improvement. Now these entrepreneurs are hanging out on their very own to make their very own video games. There are additionally a whole lot of Indian diaspora founders who’re coming again to India to construct new corporations of their homeland. And there are a wave of strategic corporations and traders who’re India as the subsequent huge main market. Over time, this could result in a wholesome acquisition market in India.
“The smartphone has utterly revolutionized the sort of video games folks play,” mentioned Deshpande. “Nearly two thirds of the inhabitants that we surveyed consumes one or two gigabytes of cell knowledge a day, and that’s as a result of we’ve one of many least expensive knowledge charges on the earth.”
Lumikai Insignia
The audio system on the Lumikai Insignia occasion embody Oscar-winner SS Rajamouli, Abdullah Alorainy from Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (which is investing $37 billion in gaming), Crysis co-creator and Crytek founder Cevat Yerli, chip design veteran Raja Koduri who has led graphics/CPU design at Intel, AMD and Apple.
