The mobile gaming market in India is estimated to become a $5 billion opportunity by 2025 from the current $1.5 billion, according to a recent Sequoia India and Boston Consulting Group report.
The rise in adoption of smartphones, wider internet access, and a better selection of mobile-first games along with the rise of gaming streamers and influencers is said to have catalysed gaming in India.
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Prachi Pawar and Pushpak Kedia of Sequoia India said in a company note, “There are now over 300 million gamers in India and revenue across all gaming devices reached $1.8 billion in 2020, up 500 per cent from 2016. The big driver is mobile gaming which accounted for $1.5 billion last year. Sequoia India and the Boston Consulting Group expect mobile gaming revenue to reach $5 billion by 2025.”
Ad revenue share declines
The note added that while India’s game creators initially monetised through in-game advertising, today, 80 per cent of the $1.5 billion revenue generated comes from in-app purchases and real-money game (RMG) spends.
Monetisation in non-RMG games is said to be nascent but is seeing a positive trend.
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Non-RMG games have a large dependence on ad revenues and have a low (7-8 per cent) paying base as compared to 15-20 per cent paying base in real money games. Higher average revenue per paying user is expected to provide a fillip to gaming industry revenues.
Investor interest grows
Further, the gaming industry has seen unprecedented growth in investor interest as 33 per cent of all funding for gaming in India came in the first quarter of 2021.
