The Indian online gaming segment is expected to more than double at Rs 29,000 crore with the number of gamers set to rise to 65.7 crores by 2025, says a KPMG report. It estimates that the online gaming market size was around Rs 13,600 crore with 43.3 crore gamers in FY20-21.
Girish Menon, KPMG India, partner and head for media and entertainment said the casual gaming segment accounted for Rs 6,000 crore and is expected to grow Rs 16,900 crore in next four years. “The online casual gaming sub-segment in India has emerged as the largest in terms of consumption amongst overall online gaming, with close to 420 million gamers engaging in online casual gaming in FY21,” he said. “Both consumer spends and advertising monetization, which is unique to India, are likely to see strong traction.”
He said that high priced gaming consoles and charges in gamers are inhibiting average revenue per user. “With technologies such as cloud gaming on the anvil and the adoption of latest AI/ML led technologies, online casual gaming in India is serious business, both for the players in the ecosystem as well as the investors,” Menon said. “We envisage the online gaming segment to be amongst the largest segments of the media and entertainment industry in India in the years to come, garnering a share of both the time, and the wallet of the Indian digital billion.”
Cloud gaming is going to see huge uptake in future with 5G technology rolling out but in India it will take around four years to mature. The report notes that with games adding social elements to their product, and people looking at gaming as a proper means to take a break from work, almost all the metrics, be it the game downloads, average time spent on gaming, or the conversion from a Daily Active User (DAU) to a paid user, are operating at a higher new normal as compared to the pre-COVID lockdown time.
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It highlights that growth will be driven by both demand side factors such as growth in digital infrastructure, a young population and increasing adoption of digital payments; as well as supply side factors such as increasing supply of world class gaming titles due to Indian studios achieving scale, active investor interest, localization of gaming content and ecosystem growth factors such as adoption of e-sports in India.
