Lumikai has slashed its growth projection for India’s real-money gaming (RMG) segment to 5% over next five years from 25% previously, blaming heavy tax liabilities and consolidation for the downgrade.
The share of RMG in the Indian gaming market, which today is nearly 60%, could reduce to 32% by fiscal 2028, said the State of India Gaming FY23 report released by Lumikai.
According to the report, around 60% of users said the new GST (goods and services tax) and TDS (tax deducted at source) rules would negatively impact how much they play.
“The next set of monetisation and revenue growth in Indian gaming shall come from in-app purchases and ad revenues, mostly through casual and mid-core games,” Justin Keeling, Lumikai’s founding partner, told ET. “The ecosystem is graduating from playing casual games to all kinds of games; people are experimenting with new genres.”
There are over 568 million gamers in India, out of which 25% were paying users. The number of gamers in India grew by 12% compared to last year, while the number of paying users grew by 17%, the Lumikai report said.
“Today, we have 25% of gamers who are paying and playing, and this growth momentum shall accelerate going forward when our supply side is robust with a vast, creative mid-core games portfolio,” Keeling said.
Keeling was speaking on the sidelines of the India Games Developer Conference (IGDC) event in Hyderabad, which is one of India’s largest gaming events.