The Indian electronic sports (esports) industry is fragmented and in its early stages of development, says Mobile Global Esports Inc.
For starters, explosive growth in India has attracted more than 250 game development companies and created competing platforms.
The leading platform, Nazara, had a 13.9% share of esports companies’ revenue in fiscal 2019, according to Esports in India’s Market Landscape Report 2020, published by Inc42Plus.
The «mobile» e-sports market in India can be considered a potentially large and still underdeveloped subset of India’s e-sports industry.
India
Three types of e-sports are played there, according to Mobile Global Esports. Real-money games charge players a registration fee and rely on this for revenue. Both Indian-developed and foreign games are available in this category, and include poker, slots and jackpot games.
The second category includes casual games, which have a wide audience and rely on advertising revenue. Here, too, there are games developed in India and foreign games, such as Teen Patti («Three Cards» in English, a card game) and Minecraft.
Finally, the third type is organized, multiplayer video games that can be played with teams. Indian developers have not yet contributed any esports games in this category.
Esports
Already, India has established e-sports traditions and college sports rivalries.
In addition, the demographics of Indian college students (educated, proficient in technology and social media, often middle class or affluent enough to afford cell phones, data consumption fees and gaming subscriptions, and are between the ages of 18 and 24) is an almost exact profile of the top esports players in the other rapidly growing markets, such as China, the United States and South Korea.
Globally, the percentage of female gamers is 23 percent.
In India, a significant number of women (17 percent) already participate in esports competitions.
The growth of digital infrastructure has removed many of the barriers to participation in e-sports. The number of smartphone users in India is now estimated to be 845 million, with the introduction of low-cost feature-rich phones, reduced access fees and wider geographic coverage.
India overtook the United States in 2019 to become the second-largest smartphone market, according to Statista. The number of internet users reached 565 million in 2020.
Economic profile
India is the world’s largest English-speaking country, Asia‘s third largest economy and currently accounts for only 2.7% of global consumption.
Growth forecasts for the next 30 years place India as the world’s third largest economy, behind China and the United States.