How the Gaming Industry in India is Shaping Up in 2024?

The first-ever India Pavilion was inaugurated at the Game Developer Conference on 22nd March 2024 in San Francisco. The pavilion was set up by WinZO, a gaming platform, in partnership with the India Game Developer Conference (IGDC) and gaming and sports media platform Nazara. The India Pavilion showcased an array of games inspired by Indian culture, stories, and epics, such as Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bollywood-based action-adventure games, a temple construction simulation, and a virtual reality cricket experience, to name a few. ?

The presence of India at the Game Developer Conference shows how the gaming industry in India is shaping up and is reported to be one of the largest markets in the world according to "India Gaming Opportunity: Robust Fundamentals to Power Continued Growth" report co-authored by the India-based body Interactive Entertainment and Innovation Council (IEIC) and WinZO.? The Indian gaming ecosystem is slated to grow at 14% CAGR to reach a revenue of $6 billion by 2028. The share of non-real money games will rise to 21% of the overall gaming market by 2028 from the current 13%, the report said.

Some highlights of India’s gaming industry

1. A user base of 568 million and 9.5 billion gaming app downloads in 2023

2. Indian gaming companies have grown from 25 in 2015 to over 1400 in 2023

3. Indian gaming professionals are acclaimed globally for their exceptional technical expertise

4. Foreign developers are finding it attractive to establish studios in the country to create gaming experiences that resonate more with Indian audiences.

5. The industry is likely to generate around 2.5 lakh employment opportunities in the next decade to meet this growing demand efficiently. In 2023 itself, online gaming employed over 100,000 skilled gaming professionals directly and indirectly.

Key Insights from the Meta-Commissioned Study by GWI on Gaming:

Nearly half of casual gamers and 43 percent of real-money gamers come from non-metro geographies.

More than three of four casual and real-money gamers in the country discover new games to play and purchase on social media, and more than 90 percent of these do so on Meta platforms. India has about 146 million real money gaming (RMG) players and about 202 million non-RMG casual gamers.

6 in 10 smartphone gamers game daily, and almost 90% of real-money gamers play real-money games at least weekly.

More than three out of four casual and real money gamers in India discover new games to play and purchase on social media, and more than 90% of these do so on the Meta platforms, as per the study. Reels, ads, and influencers play a leading role in driving this discovery.

The festive season and sporting events impact game types played, according to the study. 88% say they are more likely to switch from playing other real-money games to playing fantasy sports games during tentpole sporting events such as the IPL and World Cup.

Technologies that Gamers love: Artificial intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) are the top three gaming technologies that most interest casual gamers in India.        

Sources: ww.eurasiantimes.com, about.fb.com/news

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