Why is India's gaming industry booming?

India's booming gaming industry is worth $930 million and is the world's largest.

India is the world's second-largest internet consumer, with over 560 million subscribers.

By 2024, investors should predict a 10-year growth forecast and a $3.8 billion valuation.

According to SensorTower numbers, India surpassed the United States as the leading country for smartphone game downloads in the first nine months of 2020, with 7.3 billion instals and a 17 percent market share.

About half of India's population is under the age of 25, and 60 percent of the country's gamers are also under the age of 25. According to KPMG's media and entertainment survey, the gaming userbase reached 365 million in March 2020.

The games are being staged on mobile phones.

Mobile apps make up an astounding 85 percent of the market, with PC users accounting for 11 percent and tablet users for 4%. The percentage of people who use the internet is 30%. The income of big Indian gaming and eSports firms was $68 million in 2019, according to Inc42.

Since India has had access to cheap smartphones for the past five years, high-speed 4G broadband coverage, and the world's lowest data tariffs, mobile gaming has taken the largest share of the gaming market. These causes, along with the growth of smartphone gaming, contribute to India's youth's increasing hunger for entertainment. PUBG Mobile had an estimated 34 million Indians playing on a regular basis at its height. The battle royale genre game was downloaded a total of 175 million times by Indians alone.

According to Deloitte's Telecom, Media, and Telecommunications Predictions survey, improved disposable incomes at purchasing power parity (up 25% from 2016 levels) and broader penetration of digital payments lead to a greater desire to pay for services.

How COVID-19 made us uninterested in television

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a change in advertising and entertainment usage patterns, with KPMG predicting a 20% drop in traditional segments like film, television, and print by 2020. They predict a dramatic shift in gaming and digital media use, with global growth of up to 33% expected to hit $25.4 billion in 2021.

Gaming sites including Google Play and the Apple App Store have shown 50 percent growth in interest during lockdown. According to BARC and Nielsen, Indians currently expend 218 minutes gaming compared to 151 minutes before the lockdown.

According to Tracxn Technologies, investors such as Sequoia Capital and Kalaari Capital have already raised their assets by 78 percent to $173 million in 2020. According to Maple Capital Advisors, India now has over 400 gaming firms.

The rise in gaming is due to an increasing demand for interactive entertainment among friends, families, and peers, as well as an increase in influencers urging Indians to play more games. As digital consumption has become more commonplace, so has the need for more diverse content.

In difficult times, mobile games serve as interactive social spaces that enable consumers to communicate. Gaming spans geographies, infiltrating both tier one and tier two cities, as well as metropolitan and rural regions.

Before the pandemic, an Inc42 survey on the eSports world showed that eSports in India accounted for 4% of the country's userbase and just over 9% of industry sales. In the next three years, this industry is forecast to expand at a 36 percent annual rate, with sales of $95 expected in 2020. In 2020, the Indian eSports population for professional gaming competitions will be 17 million, up from 6 million in 2017.