The epidemic, rising mobile internet penetration, the wide variety of locally developed games, and other factors have all contributed to the mainstreaming of online gaming in India during the past few years. More than half of Indian gamers now come from non-metro areas, according to a recent study by the gaming-focused VC fund Lumikai and AWS. This development underscores the mainstreaming of the industry. According to the survey, only 44% of gamers lived in major cities in 2022.
A brief about in India, women spend more time playing online games than men do
According to demographic data, 40% of Indian gamers are women today, which defies gender preconceptions often linked with the gaming industry. According to the “State of India Gaming Report 2022,” women actually spend longer (11.2 hours per week) than males (10.2 hours) playing non-online games. While men tend to favour action-adventure or real money gaming (RMG) titles, women often favour casual and strategy games.
The majority of Indian gamers today are in the 18–30 age group (millennials and Gen Z), and an astonishing 64% of them regularly make in-app purchases to advance in the game’s story. The ecosystem is evolving as more than half of these paying players started making payments within the previous year. According to the survey, better in-game items (44%) and new content/levels (43%), respectively, also influence players’ willingness to spend.
As this is going on, one of the most well-liked subgenres is esports, which is becoming increasingly popular as more gaming platforms provide bigger prize pools and more games to their user bases. India had a 4X increase in esports players from 1.5 lakh in 2021 to 6 lakh in 2022. “With a CAGR of 32%, the Indian esports market is projected to grow to $140 million by 2027 from $40 million in 2022. According to the survey, the number of participants is anticipated to increase 2.5X during the following five years, reaching 1.5 million by 2027.
“Indians download more games than any other nation on earth, and this is translating to a host of white spaces on the consumer demand side,” said Justin Shriram Keeling, Founding General Partner at Lumikai. “These include a predominantly young, professional gamer category who are increasingly paying for in-app purchases, an untapped audience of female gamers, and strong interest in games with Indian cultural resonance.”
In the past two years, Lumikai has supported a number of gaming businesses in India. Examples include Studio Sirah (a mid-core strategy gaming studio), Loco (a native game-streaming network), Elo Elo (a creator-led, social gaming and live streaming platform), Bombay Play (which provides worldwide hypersocial, cross-platform games), etc. Building for India’s diverse gaming demographics at this moment is extremely exciting, Keeling continued.
