India’s online gaming industry tops $1 billion during pandemic | WARC | The Feed

India’s online gaming industry tops $1 billion during pandemic

The popularity of gaming, including e-sports, has surged in India over the last year, growing in terms of both the number of players and viewers and the value of the market.

Why it matters

The pandemic has boosted gaming as an activity for millions of people. Some observers forecast the gaming industry will be 10 times bigger than all India’s other entertainment sectors combined over the next five to seven years.

The details

• The online gaming sector was worth RS7,700 crore or $1.042bn in 2020, an 18% increase on 2019 according to a study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Ernst & Young (EY).
• The number of gamers grew 20% to 360 million in 2020 and is expected to reach 440 million by 2022 – this despite a ban on PUBG (Player Unknown Battleground) games due to security fears.
• The number of viewers of went up to 17 million across 14 platforms.

Astonishing stat

The best Indian e-sport competitors can make up to Rs 60,000 ($812) per match playing e-cricket. That compares to a top state-level Indian Premier League player who can expect to make around Rs 15,000 ($203) a game.

Sourced from Economic Times