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India’s e-sports industry is set to grow by 250% in the next five years, driven by a rapidly increasing gamer base of young and professional gamers and higher conversion to paid users, according to the State of India Gaming Report 2022.

The country’s e-sports sector is projected to touch $140 million by 2027 from $40 million in 2022, growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32%, the report released by Venture Capital fund Lumikaiin collaboration with Amazon Web ServicesAWS noted.

It highlighted that the number of e-sports players in the country increased by 300% to 600,000 in 2022 from 150,000 in the previous year. This number is expected to touch 1.5 million in the next five years.

“Indians download more games than any other country on earth, and this is translating to a host of white spaces on the consumer demand side including a largely young, professional gamer category who are increasingly paying for in-app purchases, an untapped audience of female gamers, and strong interest in games with Indian cultural resonance,” Justin Shriram Keeling, Founding General Partner of Lumikai, said in a statement. 

State of India Gaming Report 2022 features data from a study on Indian gamers conducted by surveying over 2,240 smartphone users across multiple demographics and geographies. 

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According to the report, 60% of surveyed gamers were men and 40% were women. However, women on average spent more time per week playing games (11.2 hours/week) as compared to men (10.2 hours/week). Indian gamers spent an average of 8.5 hours to 11 hours per week on gaming.

While gamers preferred to spend most of their time on mid-core games, followed by hardcore and real money games, 48% of non-gamers chose casual games like Ludo King and Candy Crush.

As per the report, 64% of paying gamers make in-app purchases, followed by subscription payments at 57%. Also, 59% of paying gamers started paying for games in the last 12 months, and 45% of them are incentivised by the potential to make money.

India’s gamers play on different devices—most (98%) of the gamers play games on smartphones, 23% play on PCs or laptops, and 14% play on gaming consoles. In terms of geographies, 56% of gamers surveyed came from non-metros while 44% of them were from metros.

Interestingly, people are excited about Indian-themed games. According to the report, 82% of gamers are interested in playing games based on Indian mythology, and 43% of non-gamers are more inclined to start gaming if games are based on Indian themes.