India’s online gaming spend hits Rs 10,000 crore in July, says CEA Nageswaran

In a striking revelation on the scale of India’s online gaming economy, Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran said consumer spending on the segment touched nearly Rs 10,000 crore in July alone. Speaking during an event in Mumbai on the industry’s rapid growth, he pointed out that this monthly figure translates into an annualised run rate of about Rs 1.2 lakh crore --underscoring how deeply online gaming has woven itself into the country’s digital consumption habits.

Further, CEA said that most of the urban consumption is increasingly moving from listed to unlisted companies, with inadequate data capture for services consumption.

On Artificial Intelligence, he said the new technology could challenge employment. While the AI adoption has created many formal jobs in low-value services over the past two decades, the employability remains a challenge, the CEA stressed.

Nazara sells 94.86% stake in Openplay, will invest Rs 2.17 crore in ReelSaga

The online gaming sector in the country is expected to grow by over two-fold to $9.1 billion by 2029, a joint report by real money gaming platform WinZO Games and IEIC said.

According to the data, India is home to 591 million gamers, comprising 20% of the total gamers, around 11.2 billion mobile game app downloads, and 1,900 gaming companies. The gaming sector has received $3 billion of foreign direct investment funds, of which 85% of the FDI was channeled to the Pay-to-Play segment.

Over 84,000 Indian gaming accounts leaked in 2024: Kaspersky

Last year, India's online gaming sector's size was $3.7 billion, and is estimated to reach $9.1 billion market size in 2029. According to the report, the Indian online gaming sector has the potential to unlock $63 billion worth of value for investors.