Average user spends below Rs 100 on online gaming, Rs 200-400 on OTT: Survey

An average user spends less than Rs 100 on online gaming and Rs 200-400 on over-the-top (OTT) platforms, according to a report by technology and policy think tank Esya Centre. Published in a working paper of IIM Ahmedabad, the survey outlines that users spend the maximum time about 194 minutes a day on social media, compared to 46 minutes on online gaming and 44 minutes on OTT.

Also, 28% of the surveyed population consider online gaming important for their employment prospects.

The report assesses market forces and user behaviours across social media, OTT and online gaming, including real money gaming, e-sports and casual gaming, among 2,000 respondents from Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Patna, Mysuru, Lucknow, Jaipur, and Bhopal and in-app data from over 20.6 lakh users across 143 mobile applications.


As per the report, "Policymakers' concerns around online gaming are unsupported by user time-spend and money-spend data."

The report comes after the GST Council's meeting that changed the GST levied on the online gaming industry from 18% on Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) to 28% on deposits, leading to a 350% to 400% jump in the industry's GST outgo.

User addiction and loss of money were cited as key reasons behind this steep hike in tax rate.

A 30% increase in participation fee for online games may lead to a 71% dip in engagement, which indicates higher price sensitivity in contrast to 17% population affected by price hike on OTT platforms, according to the survey.

While all users are active on social media once a month, the corresponding number for OTT and online gaming stood at 60% and 40%, respectively.

The survey also found that 89% of the users remain active every day on social media, while just 22% of surveyed users access online gaming on a daily basis. Daily active population on OTT from the survey universe stood at 12%.