Indian online gaming segment expected to reach Rs 29,000 cr by FY25: Report

The Indian online gaming segment is expected to more than double at Rs 29,000 crore with the number of gamers rising to 65.7 crore by financial year 2025, a KPMG report said on Thursday.

The report estimates that the online gaming market size was around Rs 13,600 crore with 43.3 crore gamers in financial year 2020-21.

Of Rs 13,600 crore, the casual gaming segment accounted for Rs 6,000 crore and it is expected to grow to Rs 16,900 crore in next four years, according to the report.

"The online casual gaming sub-segment in India has emerged as the largest in terms of consumption amongst overall online gaming, with close to 420 million gamers engaging in online casual gaming in FY21. Both consumer spends and advertising based monetisation, which is unique to India, are likely to see strong traction," KPMG India, partner and head for media and entertainment, Girish Menon said while sharing details of the report.

He said that high priced gaming consoles and charges in games are inhibiting average revenue per user.

"With technologies such as cloud gaming on the anvil and the adoption of latest AI/ML led technologies, online casual gaming in India is serious business, both for the players in the ecosystem as well as the investors.

"We envisage the online gaming segment to be amongst the largest segments of the media and entertainment industry in India in the years to come, garnering a share of both the time, and the wallet of the Indian digital billion," Menon said.

He said cloud gaming is going to see huge uptake in future with 5G technology rolling out but in India it will take around 4 years to mature.