Exclusive: Mobile Gaming industry in India

Everything you need to know about the Indian mobile games market is in our exclusive material straight from PG Connect (you are waiting for answers to the questions how much games earn in India and how many people play in this country).

Today, China is in the spotlight. Revenues from this market are growing rapidly. And while Western publishers are learning to work with Chinese users and numerous markets, publishers in China are starting to expand into the United States and Europe with the money earned at home.

But in just a couple of years, the role of the most dynamically developing and “delicious” market can easily pass to India.

However, according to a report by Rajesh Rao, founder and CEO of Dhruva, this moment is still far away.

Rajesh Rao
At the moment, there are 850 million mobile users in India, but the level of smartphone penetration is relatively small – 80 million at the end of 2013 (however, Rajesh promises that in 2014 there will be 100 million more).

81% of smartphone users in India play games.

In general, the volume of the mobile games market is less than $100 million.

Most smartphones run on Android. The second most popular platform is Windows Phone. iOS, respectively, is in third place in terms of prevalence.

Rajesh calls archaic payment methods the main problem of the market. India is a country where everything is usually paid for in cash. Only 20 million smartphone users own credit cards. Billing, in turn, is also not all right. Operators charge extortionately large percentages. However, the situation is improving now, so there is hope that if Google Play introduces billing support, the market will start to grow.

Despite the sad numbers in terms of the number of smartphones and the popularity of credit cards, games in India can earn. Moreover, projects based on Bollywood hits show excellent downloads for the market.

Ra One
For example, the game based on the fantastic Indian comic Ra One was downloaded more than 1 million times in a week.

As for money, hits on the Indian market bring from $100 thousand to $200 thousand without free-2-play.

Hindus also play Western projects. Candy Crush Saga, Subway Surfers and Temple Run are consistently in the top of Google Play downloads. By the way, the mobile versions of FIFA and NFS earn more in the Indian market than projects under these brands on consoles.

But Rajesh assures that when the market grows, Indian projects will still dominate it. According to him, domestic projects prevail in all segments of the entertainment industry in India, and the games market will not be an exception in this regard.

But so far the industry in the country is growing slowly. Over the past two years, only 100 independent gaming startups have appeared in India. For comparison, there are now about 80 thousand studios in China engaged in the development of mobile games.