Gamers From Non-Metro Cities Increase nearly 10% in '23; In-app Revenue Grew 37% Y-o-Y: Report According to the report, India's gaming market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 20 per cent to reach USD 7.5 Billion in the next five years

The total number of gamers in India grew by 12 per cent in FY23 and also saw an increase in average time spent per user per week. The country ranked second at 15.4 billion when it came to total mobile game downloads in FY23, just behind China.

These insights were shared in the 'Leveling up: State of India Gaming FY'23' released by Lumikai, a gaming and interactive media VC fund, in collaboration with Google.

According to the report, India's gaming market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 20 per cent to reach USD 7.5 Billion in the next five years

The survey also revealed that in-game monetization stayed stable outside the suspension of BGMI and Free Fire, growing at 37 per cent y-o-y. Notably, out of 568 Mn Indian gamers in FY23, 25 per cent were paying users.

"The strong growth & insights showcased in our report are a testament to the continued appetite for gaming in India. Indian gaming has been on the rise because of rapid digitisation, growth in new gamers and new paid gamers, and increasing diversity of gaming content consumed. Even though funding has slowed down this year, the outlook towards the gaming industry is extremely positive," said Salone Sehgal, Founding General Partner, Lumikai.

From $3.1 Bn in FY23 to $7.5 Bn by FY28

From achieving the mark of USD7.5 billion by 2028, In-app purchases and ad revenues are expected to play a big role, pushing structural shifts towards a higher propensity to pay in-game, and growing prominence of casual and mid-core games.

The gaming market size on the basis of category sees Midcore and core category to make up the biggest segment at USD 2.7 billion by FY28. This will be a big jump from 0.4 billion in 2023. Casual and hypercasual category is also expected to touch USD 2.3 billion in FY28 as compared to USD 0.7 billion in FY23.

Sustained increase in engagement

Additionally, the average time spent on gaming increased from 9-11 hours in FY22 to 10-12 hours. The report also highlights that 50 per cent of Indian mobile users are gamers.

In-game monetization remained stable in FY23

Estimated in-app purchases grew from USD 236 Mn last year to USD 323 Mn in FY23 and the number of paying gamers grew by 17 per cent in FY23.

Interestingly, monetization is said to be improving steadily for the casual genre.

Major insights from pan-India survey

With responses from 2,317 participants, the report shares insights across different demographics such as gamer and non-gamer motivations, behaviours, preferences, and monetisation propensity.

The gender player ratio stood as 59 per cent being men and 41 per cent being women. The report also threw light on the key motivations to start and stop playing games. To kill time or as distraction, relaxation or destressing, and socialising with other gamers were the top playing motivators. Completed game objectives, too many ads, and the game falling out of trend were the top three reasons to stop playing.

Interestingly, the share of gamers from non-metro cities increased from 57 per cent in '22 to 66 per cent in '23.

When it came to payment behaviour, 25 per cent of gamers spent money on games/ gaming platforms. The top kinds of payment made were identified as 58 per cent in-app purchases, 49 per cent subscriptions, 48 per cent real money gaming, and 17 per cent virtual gifting and tipping.

UPI topped as the preferred mode of payment.

With the latest rollout of GST, what is the status of awareness of recent TDS and GST changes in RMG and fantasy segment among players? 43 per cent knew about GST and TDS both, 35 per cent did not know, 11 per cent knew about GST only, and 11 per cent knew about TDS only. "Around 60% of users have said that new GST and TDS rules would negatively impact how much they play," read the report.