The report said that more than 300 million people play mobile games in India, and that the gaming market as a whole grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38% in 2019-2020 and 37% the previous fiscal. This means that gaming has been growing faster than social media in India over the past few years. India’s social media market grew by 11% in 2019-20 and 26% the previous fiscal.
The size of the mobile gaming market is estimated at $1.5 billion, or about 86% of the total gaming market, the report said. By contrast, mobile gaming comprises 59% of the gaming market in China and just 28% in the US. Revenues from mobile gaming in India are expected to shoot up to at least $5 billion by 2025, it said.
As for funding, India’s gaming startups raised $549 billion in the first quarter of 2021, more than the $412 billion they raised in all of 2020. For comparison, gaming startups raised just $34 million in 2016.
India’s gaming market is still tiny in absolute numbers, however, comprising just 1% of the global market. The US gaming market is worth more than $40 billion, or 23% of the global market, while China’s is worth more than $45 billion — 26% of the global market. As would be expected from bigger markets, their growth rates are relatively modest, with China clocking CAGR of 8% from 2017 to 2020 and the US gaming market growing at 10% CAGR over this period.
Even though mobile gaming already comprises 86% of India’s gaming market, there’s still plenty of room to grow, the report said. In 2020, only 46% of Indians were connected to the Internet, compared with 60% in China and 89% in the US. Also, only 22% of the population had played at least one mobile game as of 2020, compared with 45% in China and 52% in the US.
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But most importantly, India’s mobile gamers spent far less than their Chinese and American peers. The average mobile gamer spends just $3-10 on games in a year. The average mobile gamer in China meanwhile spends $57-66 a year, while the average US mobile gamer spends $73-77 a year.
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