E-sports industry in India has been gaining momentum with more and more players joining in and so the market is projected to more than triple in size by 2027, says a joint report by gaming-focused venture fund Lumikai and Amazon’s cloud services arm AWS.
The Indian e-sports space grew to $40 million in 2022 and is expected to reach $140 million by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32%, the report said.
Some of the well-funded e-sports platforms in India includes Mobile Premier League (MPL), Zupee, Games24X7, WinZo, Loco, FanClash and GetMega among others.
Justin Shriram Keeling, founding general partner at Lumikai, said that the report shows a diverse market maturing faster than expected across key vectors.
He also highlighted the opportunities in the sector, including a largely young, professional gamer category who are increasingly paying for in-app purchases, an untapped audience of female gamers, and a strong interest in games with Indian cultural resonance.
To be sure, the number of e-sports players in India has also grown from 0.15 million in 2021 to 0.6 million in 2022. The report noted that the number of e-sports players is expected to reach 1.5 million by 2027.
Further, e-sports players are now more comfortable in making payments to play games.
According to the report, 64% of paying gamers make in-app purchases, while 57% make subscription payments. The report pointed out that 45% of paying gamers are incentivized by the potential to make money.
Gaming has emerged as one of the most engaging forms of entertainment today and startups are at the forefront of the rapid growth of the Indian gaming industry, said Amitabh Nagpal, head of startup ecosystem, AWS India.
Lumikai was founded in 2020 by Salone Sehgal and Keeling. At the time of its launch, the early-stage VC fund had said that it will invest in about 20 early-stage deals with ticket sizes between $200,000 to $2 million. Its limited partners include gaming and technology companies from Japan, Finland, US, and South Korea.
So far, it has invested in Singularity, Supernova, All Star Games, Eloelo, Crater, Studio Sirah, CloudFeather Games, Bombay Play and Loco, among others. “The fund is looking to close 3-5 deals in the next 1 year,” Sehgal had told VCCircle in an interview in October last year.
