Indian e-sports industry grew to $40 million in 2022 and is expected to reach $140 million by 2027 at a CAGR of 32 per cent, according to a report by gaming VC fund Lumikai and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The ‘State of India Gaming Report 2022’ report showed that the number of e-sports players in India grew four times from 0.15 million in 2021 to 0.6 million in 2022, and is expected to grow 2.5 times over the next five years to reach 1.5 million by 2027.
What the data says
India’s gamer demographics demonstrate a diversity of play styles and geographies. As much as 98 per cent of people play games on smartphones, with 23 per cent playing on PCs/laptops and 14 per cent on gaming consoles. Of the surveyed, 60 per cent were men, and 40 per cent women, according to the report.
On an average, Indian gamers spent 8.5- 11 hours per week on gaming, with women found to spend more time per week playing games (11.2 hours/week) as compared to men (10.2 hours/week).
Average time spent per week is highest in mid-core (3.4 hours/week; an example of a mid-core Game—is BGMI, Clash of Clans) followed by hardcore and real money games (RMG) (3.3 hours/week; examples of hardcore games—DOTA 2, Genshin Impact).
Amitabh Nagpal, Head of Start-up Ecosystem, AWS India (Amazon Web Services India) said, “Gaming has emerged as one of the most engaging forms of entertainment today. Start-ups are at the forefront of the rapid growth of the Indian gaming industry, and use cloud technologies to build, run and grow their games. AWS provides Indian gaming start-ups with the services and solutions they need to develop high-performance games across all categories.”
Preference for casual games
The survey revealed that 48 per cent of non-gamers chose casual games (examples of casual games - Ludo King, Candy Crush) as their most preferred game category to play in the future, with 35 per cent of gamers acknowledging that they have increased their time spent gaming in the last 12 months.
The report highlights that 64 per cent of paying gamers make in-app purchases, followed by subscription payments at 57 per cent. 59 per cent of payers have started paying for games in the last 12 months. The trend further shows that 50 per cent of paying gamers are willing to pay for casual games, followed by 48 per cent for mid-core and 39 per cent for hyper-casual and RMG.