Lumikai, India’s gaming, and interactive media venture capital fund, has released the first look of its annual ‘State of India Gaming FY 2022’ report at the India Game Developers Conference (IGDC) Summit at Hyderabad.
The report is the most comprehensive ever undertaken across India’s gaming industry, with inputs from a demographic sample of 2,240 respondents, third-party data providers, interviews with industry leaders, and Lumikai’s proprietary insights.
Some of the key highlights from the report include:
- India has crossed the half-a-billion mark with 507M gamers today in the country. Out of which 120 million, almost one-fourth, are paying users.
- With 15B downloads, India was the world’s largest consumer of mobile games in FY22.
- In FY22, mid-core games (like BGMI, and Free Fire) were the fastest growing gaming category achieving growth of 32 per cent, grossing combined revenues of ~$550M.
- Indians pay for games. Nearly 48 per cent of gamers spend money on mid-core games. 65 per cent of paying gamers claim they have engaged in in-app purchases at least once.
- Indian gaming companies are on track to raise $513M for the calendar year ’22. Gaming sector funding is up 380 per cent from 2019 and up by 23 per cent from 2020.
- Web3 emerged as an increasingly popular technology in games, with 30 per cent of 450 Indian Web3 companies operating in gaming. Web3 games in India have raised ~$400M in funding (2019-22).
- India-based content is growing in popularity with 80 per cent of gamers showing a proclivity to play games based on Indian intellectual property.
- The number of female gamers in India is on the rise. Male:female ratio of surveyed gamers yielded a 60:40 ratio, equally split between metro and non-metro cities.
Sharing his thoughts on the report, Lumikai founding general partner Justin Shriram Keeling said, “India’s gaming industry this year hit major inflection points, registering strong growth across the board. India crossed half a billion gamers in FY22, up from 450 Mn the year prior. Industry growth is expected to be fuelled by a rapidly increasing gamer base, higher conversion to paid users, and increasing sophistication of Indian gamers. With the market now truly mainstream, we are thrilled to be at the forefront of investing in one of the fastest growing and most dynamic sectors in digital India.”
Commenting on the state of the gaming ecosystem in India, Lumikai founding general partner Salone Sehgal said, “The last 28 months have been watershed years in terms of attracting VC investment of over $2.6B in the Indian gaming landscape. Sustained capital investment and liquidity outcomes in the form of strategic exits valuing $750M+, multiple unicorns, and a publicly traded company have heightened the interests of entrepreneurs and investors alike. This sustained momentum should further drive entrepreneurial ambition and innovation in the Indian gaming industry.”