Until recently, India hadn’t been a major player in the online entertainment sphere. However, over the last decade, the internet has spread rapidly around the nation. More than 50 percent of the country is now online, and it is estimated by Economictimes.indiatimes.com that by 2025 the country will have 900 million active users.
This incredible growth means that India is seen as one of the world’s most fertile landscapes for future investment. Its entertainment industry is set to blow up on a global scale, with a heavy focus on a swiftly evolving gaming industry.
What Have Been the Biggest Developments on the Subcontinent so Far?
There are massive expectations for the gaming industry in India. This is one of the main pastimes for people in the country who are online already. There are already more than 100 million gamers in India, including two million who partake in eSports. That means that both recreational and competitive gaming businesses will be targeting the country as a place that’s ripe for investment.
Aside from mobile and console gaming, the online casino industry has also boomed thanks to the rise of the internet. People in India are known to enjoy gambling, with estimates suggesting that around 80 percent of adults like to stake on games. This is reflected by the wealth of online gamblers, who use sites like Asiabet.org to help them find casinos to play at. They can choose based on the games they are into and find some local insight about the online gambling scene. There are also numerous gambling guides on the sites to help players who are new to the scene. Many of the world’s biggest brands are now targeting players in India as this market is set to expand massively in the years ahead.
Aside from international companies gearing their offerings towards Indian players and scaling up their efforts to attract new internet users, there are also a few notable businesses emerging from within the country. One of the biggest corporations is Tata Consultancy Services, which is one of the most lucrative IT brands in the world. It’s lauded for its forward-thinking innovations and forays into AR and VR game development.
FGFactory is a massive conglomerate that has more than 300 projects across multiple gaming platforms, and Unanimous Studios has been in the game since 2008. These giants at the top not only provide inspiration to smaller up-and-coming businesses, but they also often acquire and merge with attractive prospects.
What Can We Expect to Happen in the Future?
There are a few key areas in the gaming industry to watch out for in 2022 and beyond. The mobile sector is one of the most prominent offshoots of this form of entertainment, with there being more than 750 million smartphone users in the country. This means that there will be a huge focus on the development of mobile apps and casino games that can be played from these devices.
A report from VC firm Sequoia in 2021 suggested that the mobile gaming industry in the country could be worth a whopping $5 billion by 2025. That’s almost five times its valuation in 2020, highlighting how gaming in India is likely to grow at lightning speed. That will open many opportunities for both mobile app and iGaming developers to flourish as the audience for these games continues to swell.
With the high number of eSports players, it will be interesting to see the part that India plays in the rise of this industry as well. The eSports sector is expected to be worth around $5 billion by 2030, which is almost five times its current value. For it to balloon in size like this, it will require emerging online marketspaces to help with its growth.
To say that there are already two million competitive gamers in a country with a fledgling online gaming industry, it could mean that there could be close to ten million by 2030. By that time, the internet will be ubiquitous and the hardware on which people play these games will be more accessible to the masses, as we have explored here at Sguru.org
India has already experienced an amazing evolution since the internet spread across the country. It is now one of the most exciting regions to watch out for in the improvement and enhancement of online gaming options in the years ahead.