How gaming influencers are crafting the growth story of Indian gaming

A recent study by Boston Consulting Group & Sequoia pegs India’s mobile gaming industry as a $5 billion market opportunity. The report also highlights the unprecedented level of investor interest indicative of high expected growth in the industry and added that 33% of all funding for gaming in India came in Q12021. Gaming platforms are winning on the back of variety in proposition.

Gaming in India has been catalysed by better smartphones, increased Internet access, popular titles, influencers, and COVID. Mobile-first trend within gaming continues strong, with a sizeable user base of 300 million+ and ~$1.5 billion in revenues. While compared to the global scenario, India’s gaming sector is relatively small – ~1% - the growth is at an impressive ~38% CAGR. Monetisation is still nascent as the paying base remains still low (7-8% for non-RMG, 15-20% for RMG), but trending positively and alongside higher ARPPUs are expected to provide momentum to industry revenues.

Commenting on the rise of the gaming culture in India, Sagar Nair, Co-Founder & CEO, Qlan, said, “The Indian gaming and esports audience is without a doubt growing at an accelerated rate. The feats achieved by some of the leading organisations and gaming creators have paved the path for future gamers to take it up more seriously. So yes, we have all the potential needed to become a $5 billion mobile gaming market by 2025.”

Talking about the influence of business in gamers, the gaming and viewers, Abhishek Aggarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, Trinity Gaming, said, “We, at Trinity Gaming, in a short span have seen how the industry has revolutionised, shifting in an impressive pattern to only accommodate more gamers, industry partners, and stakeholders thriving in this sunrise industry. Gaming influencers with their unique content and highly engaging live streams have successfully penetrated a section of viewers who were untouched, expanding and sharing the excitement of the esports industry. It allowed viewers to connect with the players and has generated genuine interest in esports.”

He further said, “Investors’ positive sentiment to support the industry at its very nascent state motivates us and the gaming community as a whole. We really hope to see India soon rising to be the next big nation in this industry.”

According to Sensor Tower data, India is the world’s largest mobile gaming market in app downloads, constituting 12% of the total downloads worldwide. The mobile gaming world has transformed at lightning speed in the past decade and it is expected to grow and evolve in unimaginable ways.

Tarun Gupta, Founder, Ultimate Battle, India’s first-ever one-stop online esports platform, noted, “With smartphones penetrating every nook and corner of Indian grassroots and having the latest gaming tech embedded in them at an affordable price, the mobile gaming industry is the new industry to watch out for. Today, smartphones have overtaken PCs and consoles in the gaming category. They are being opted by millennials and even professional gamers to play games like Battleground Mobile India, Freefire, Call of Duty, and more.”