India’s gaming market reached a serious milestone in 2025, producing $1.04 billion in income, up 14.8% year-on-year and exceeding $1 billion for the primary time. In line with Niko Companions’ forecasts, income will proceed rising to just about $1.2 billion in 2026 earlier than reaching $1.77 billion by 2030, representing a five-year CAGR of 11.2%. India stays the fastest-growing online game market among the many ones tracked by Niko Companions.
Market development is being fueled by each scale and engagement. Niko Companions estimates that India recorded 511 million gamers in 2025, with this determine anticipated to cross 550 million in 2026, and attain over 700 million by 2030. Nevertheless, whereas this locations India as having one of many largest participant bases on this planet, monetization stays at an early stage, with ARPU reaching $2.04 in 2025 and forecast to develop to $2.52 by 2030. This mix of a large viewers and growing spending makes India a pretty alternative inside the international video games market.
Why India’s Gaming Market Is Rising
The first driver of market development is sustained spending on cellular video games. As digital adoption expands and disposable incomes rise amongst sure client segments, India is seeing a rising proportion of high-spending gamers contribute to general market income.
The market can also be changing into extra various. Whereas battle royale and informal video games stay necessary, Niko Companions is observing rising audiences for a wider vary of genres throughout cellular, PC, and console platforms. These audiences could also be smaller in dimension, however they typically generate increased worth and engagement, creating new alternatives for publishers in search of development past mainstream genres.
A number of long-term traits are anticipated to form India’s gaming business over the following 5 years:
- Rising engagement with genres past battle royale and informal video games.
- Growing participant engagement with legacy PC titles.
- Extra assist for gaming from each nationwide and state governments.
- Rising participation in esports, resulting in deeper engagement and stronger gaming communities.
- Higher alternatives for publishers that may successfully goal specialised participant segments.
Collectively, these traits are serving to remodel India from a high-volume gaming market right into a extra mature and diversified gaming ecosystem.
UGC Platforms Proceed to Increase Whereas Attitudes Towards AI Shift
Consumer-generated content material (UGC) platforms corresponding to Roblox and Minecraft have gotten more and more fashionable amongst Indian gamers, notably youthful audiences. Even roleplay inside Grand Theft Auto has turn out to be fashionable on livestreaming platforms. These platforms mix social interplay, creativity, and extremely shareable gameplay experiences, making them particularly enticing to digitally native customers.
On the identical time, Niko Companions has noticed a notable shift in sentiment relating to Generative AI. In contrast with earlier years, Indian gamers have gotten extra cautious about how AI is being utilized by each builders and gamers. Financial issues look like a key issue driving this transformation, notably as discussions round AI’s influence on employment turn out to be extra outstanding within the nation.
As AI adoption accelerates throughout industries, gaming corporations working in India might want to stability innovation with participant expectations concerning transparency, authenticity, and belief.
A few of the key takeaways from the report:
- Feminine participation in gaming continues to extend, rising from 43% of gamers in 2023 to 49% in 2026.
- Non-battle royale cellular video games are capturing a bigger share of market income, growing from 53.2% of cellular sport income in June 2023 to 62.8% in June 2026.
- 31.5% of Indian gamers favor buying in-game content material outdoors conventional app shops, together with internet shops, third-party shops, and top-up playing cards.
- UPI dominates gaming funds, with 84.6% of Indian gamers having used a UPI-based cost technique, considerably increased than bank card utilization at 31.5%.
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These findings spotlight a gaming market that’s changing into extra various, extra subtle, and more and more enticing to publishers, builders, cost suppliers, and buyers. Whereas India’s giant participant base stays one among its defining strengths, future development shall be pushed by deeper engagement, evolving participant preferences, various cost options, and the emergence of higher-spending audiences.
At Niko Companions, we assist companies flip market intelligence into motion. By way of our syndicated research, subscription-based insights, and custom consulting services, we offer the info, evaluation, and strategic steerage wanted to navigate the quickly evolving gaming markets throughout Asia and MENA. Whether or not you might be evaluating market enlargement alternatives, analyzing participant habits, assessing monetization methods, or monitoring regulatory developments, our research helps organizations make knowledgeable enterprise choices with confidence.
Contact us to learn the way Niko Companions might help your group establish development alternatives and construct profitable methods in one of many world’s fastest-growing gaming markets.
