Playing on Numbers: Making sense of India’s gaming boom

India’s digital gaming sector has grown substantially over the last five years and is even expected to surpass the entertainment industry, as Indians spend more time gaming than watching films.

Consulting firm EY’s latest study titled ‘New Frontiers: Navigating the Evolving Landscape for Online Gaming in India’ has highlighted a few statistics about the health of gaming.

Over the past three years, the online gaming industry has grown at a CAGR of 28 per cent, reaching Rs 16,428 crore in FY23 and is likely to reach Rs 33,243 crore by FY28. India continues to be a ‘mobile first’ market, with 94 per cent of its gamer base engaging in mobile gaming.

With around 42.5 crore gamers in FY23, India has the second-largest number of online gamers in the world, only after China which has around 75 crore gamers. However, India’s revenue is still merely 1.1 per cent of the online gaming revenue worldwide.

The real money gaming (RMG) subsegment constitutes 82.8 per cent of the market share in FY23, with more than 400 RMG start-ups. RMG is expected to contribute around Rs 6,500 crore to Rs 6,800 crore a direct tax revenues (comprising TDS and corporate tax) and Rs 75,000 to Rs 76,000 crore as indirect tax or GST.

The gaming sector is expected to draw Rs 22,931 crore investments between FY20 and FY24 from both domestic and foreign sources. Currently employing around one lakh people, the sector shows potential to expand job opportunities to 2.5 lakh people by 2025.

The percentage of paying gamers among the total gamer base is about 25 per cent currently, and is anticipated to reach 34 per cent by FY28.