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Mobile gaming has recently overtaken console/PC as the most dominant segment of gaming, with about $100billion in global revenue in 2024, and is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.39% until 2027. Nearly 2 billion people worldwide are expected to regularly play mobile games by this point. While the United States and China markets have played a key role in the growth of mobile gaming and will continue to push the industry forward, India is emerging as a major contributor to the industry's growth.
Niko Partners, a consulting firm specializing in video games, released a report in 2024 that stated Asia and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region generated more than $85 billion in total gaming revenue, including console/PC and mobile, in 2023.
India's gaming market accounted for $830 million of that total, up nearly 16 percent from the year prior, and the market is expected to exceed $1 billion in revenue by 2025. Mobile gaming comprised more than three-quarters of all gaming revenue in the country. Moreover, Niko Partners' research suggested that India will add an additional277 million new players by 2028, representing 72 percent of all gamer growth in Asia and MENA. By revenue and gamers as well as average revenue per user(ARPU), India is the fastest growing market in the Asia-10 (Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.)
A separate report, produced by the online gaming firm Winzo and Interactive Entertainment and Innovation Council, projected the Indian mobile gaming market would be worth $6 billion by 2028.
Below is a breakdown of the mobilegaming market in India and the reasons for its rapid growth.
Key Factors for Growth
According to the United Nations,India overtook China as the most populous country in the world by the end ofApril 2023, at which point it had 1.43 billion people. The country has arelatively young population, with the median age at 28.7 years in 2022. Thiswas almost 10 years younger than China's median age of 38.4. India's youthdemographic, however, is just a small contributing factor to the growth ofmobile gaming in the country.
Expanded internet access,particularly in small and rural regions, is a major factor for the growth ofthe mobile gaming sector. Smartphones have become more affordable and datarates have gone down, making mobile games a lot more accessible. Mobile datacosts just $0.26 per gigabyte in India, which is among the lowest rates in theworld; by contrast, it is $6.66 in the United Kingdom and $12.37 in the US.Samsung is also planning to move some of its smartphone manufacturing to India,which will further strengthen the region's mobile gaming market.
Favorable government policies,including 100percent foreign direct investment in the gaming industry, and technologicaladvancements have also been major contributing factors to mobile gaming growthin India. These, along with other factors, signal additional growth opportunityfor the Indian mobile gaming market.
The Role of eSports
Competitive gaming, particularlyesports, is also helping to push the overall gaming market in India forward.There were more than 1 million competitive esports players in India in 2023,about 500 of which were professionals. India's government has also launchedvarious initiatives to develop esports players which, along with enhanced 5Gconnectivity, with the ability to support 1 million devices per squarekilometer, will create a competitive market for game developers.
Indian Publishers
India is not only making its markin the mobile gaming market in terms of players and revenues, but also inhomegrown developers. PUBG, one of the most popular mobile games worldwide, isbanned in India, but Indian developer nCORE Games developed a similar mobilegame titled Fearless and United Guards, or FAU-G. This is very similar to PUBG,but with a storyline and setting that caters to Indian audiences. FAU-G hadnearly 5 million pre-registrations before it launched in January 2021 and alsoachieved another 5 million downloads in a 24-hour span on the Google PlayStore.
Gammation Technologies Pvt Ltd.,Words Mobile, Games2win.com, and Moonfrog are among the other notable Indiangaming studios. There are about 166,000 game publishers on Google Play and morethan 5,200 of them are Indian.
Top Grossing and Most Downloaded Games
Ludo King, a cross-platform multiplayer dice game created by Indian developer Gametion Global, was the most-downloaded mobile game in India in 2023 with more than 100 million downloads. In total, it has exceeded 1 billion downloads on the Google Play Store since its release. Indian Bikes Driving 3D, Free Fire MAX, Carrom Pool, Subway Princess Runner, Candy Crush Saga, and Subway Surfers all notched more than 50million downloads in 2023.
Meanwhile, Free Fire MAX, Battlegrounds Mobile India, Coin Master, Candy Crush Saga, and eFootball 2024are among the highest-grossing mobile titles on the Google Play Store in India this year.
