Lumikai & Google: The Indian Gaming Market in 2023 and Forecast until 2027
The gaming market outside of the RMG segment in India now is about $1.1B. But it's ready for growth.
The size of the Indian gaming market in 2023 will reach $3.1 billion. Mobile games account for only $1.1 billion, with the remaining volume taken up by Real Money Gaming (RMG) games.
❗️ In October, India announced a 28% tax on deposits in RMG games, impacting the entire industry.
Therefore, Lumikai and Google forecast a very restrained annual growth of 5% for the entire segment until 2028.
However, mobile games are expected to show explosive growth. The growth of the casual games segment is projected to increase from $0.7 billion in 2023 to $2.3 billion in 2028 (26% average annual growth rate). In the case of mid-core and hardcore projects, growth is expected from $0.4 billion to $2.7 billion in 2028 (49% average annual growth rate).
Interestingly, the growth of in-game payments beyond Battlegrounds Mobile India and Garena: Free Fire was separately calculated. In 2023, players spent $323 million on in-game purchases in other games, with a 37% growth compared to 2022.
❗️ If the data in the report is consistent, the two largest Battle Royale games in India account for approximately $180 million in revenue annually.
Lumikai and Google believe that the volume of in-game transactions in India will grow nearly sevenfold in five years, and advertising revenue will triple.
Currently, India has 568 million players, of which only 140 million are paying players. On average, they spend 10-12 hours per week on games.
59% of players are male, and 41% are female.
The majority of players (50%) are young people aged 18 to 30.
The number of players in India from non-major (by Indian standards) cities is growing. In 2023, they account for 66% of the entire audience.
India is the second-largest market after China in terms of game downloads (15.4 billion per year).
Lumikai and Google note that in 2023, the average annual ARPPU (Average Revenue Per Paying User) for a user from India is $19.2. In 2019, this indicator was $2.