According to the India Gaming Report for the FY 2021-2022 which was released in Hyderabad on Thursday, India predominated in the global gaming industry in 2021-2022. The country has registered the largest pool of users of mobile games. A record of 15 billion game downloads has been made in India, beating China and US. China, with 6.1 billion downloads, now stands in the second position, and the US at the third one with 5 billion downloads.
This report is curated by Lumikai which is a gaming and interactive media fund, in collaboration with Deloitte India, and was publicised at the India Game Developers Conference (IGDC).
According to the reports, in 2021-22 the population of gamers in India has surpassed the half-a-billion mark. This count is further expected to increase to about 700 million by the year 2025.
“India’s gaming industry this year hit major inflexion points, registering strong growth across the board. The growth is expected to be fuelled further by a rapidly increasing gamer base, higher conversion to paid users, and increasing sophistication of Indian gamers”, quoting the founding general partner of Lumikai, Justin Shriram Keeling. He also added that the gaming markets in the US and China, on contrary, are either becoming stagnant or experiencing a drop in demand.
The report also found that the average revenue made by India in the year 2021-22 has grown by 11% when it comes to paid users. The reports say that this makes it $20 per year for each person, which is approximately Rs.1600. This proves the presupposition wrong that Indians are unwilling to pay.
Invigorated by this outstanding growth, the industry is being funded from around the world, the reports mention, which increases the investments by 380% this year as compared to 2019. Factually, from its pool of over 900 companies, India has found itself three gaming unicorns and at least one successful IPO.
Quoting another founding general partner of Lumikai, Salone Sehgal said, “The last 28 months have been a watershed period in terms of attracting VC investment of over $2.6 billion in the Indian gaming landscape.”
The ratio of male and female gamers in India is another fascinating finding. The survey which was responded to by 2240 gamers found an encouraging shift with the ratio standing at 60:40, representing the growing participation of women in gaming. The average time spent on games was also revealed in this report. Per week, it was found to be 8.5 hours for this year, with the time spent on the game ‘Free Fire’ grabbing a large part of 109 minutes.
