The Indian gaming environment, which flaunts over 1,100 startups and 40 crore-solid gaming networks, is flourishing more than ever. With their unique contributions, for example, NFT-based games, fantasy sports, pay-to-play games and monetary rewards, domestic firms have acquired popularity globally. North of 86 Indian firms has gotten $1.4 billion investment throughout recent years, including two unicorns and seven soonicorns, as per a most recent report of the research firm Tracxn.

Around the world, gaming firms got $20.4B in investments throughout recent years of which, India got a 6.8% of the investment. The US (42.2%) and Chinese (18.3%) firms got the largest part.

Fantasy sports platform MPL ($150 million), which is a unicorn, is one of the top 10 funded organizations universally in the last 2 years. Games24x7, one more Unicorn from India, additionally got $75 million.

Soonicorns like Zupee ($72 M), WinZO ($65 M), Hike (NFT gaming, $261 M), JetSynthesys, Octro, EloElo and Games2win also bagged the jackpot. Indeed, even four beginning phase startups Bombay Play, One World Nation, Studio Sirah, and Awon Gamez-have additionally figured out how to prevail upon their first rounds of funding the last year.

Indeed, even as the digital currency sector across the world failed, Venture capitalists have shown a strong fascination with Indian Web3 gaming startups that deal with play-to-earn (P2E) entertainment and use digital coins and NFTs for exchanges. Organizations with blockchain-based contributions stashed $620 mn in 2022. Gurugram-based Rario, Bengaluru-based Lysto.io and Delhi-based Hike are among them, Tracxn data says. The hike turned from texting to social, gaming, and crypto in 2021.

“Indian gaming companies have been building local products with capabilities to cater to mobile-gaming markets across the world. Gaming as a category has shown itself to be driven by a highly monetizable audience base: one that tends to spend a lot of time on content and online engagement, is likely to be a trendsetter, has the propensity to spend and is often the chief purchase influencer in his/her family and friend circle,” thinks Piyush Kumar, Founder and CEO, Rooter – Gaming and Esports Content platform.

He further said, “Indian gaming startups have been quick to encash this opportunity. Gaming content platforms like ours are building scalable, tech-driven, revenue-generating models that have garnered interest from marquee global investors.”

As indicated by Rohit Agarwal, Organizer and Chief, Alpha Zegus, “Since gaming is an industry that is completely digitally-led, there is an almost infinite reserve of digital content that can be converted into NFTs. Also, the gaming audience is more tech-driven and understands the concept of NFT quite easily. These two factors give the NFT-based gaming industry a big advantage.”

Karan Taurani, Senior VP of Elara Capital, echoes the opinions. “Indian gaming companies have quickly realized the shift of casual gamers towards pay-to-play games. Web3 gaming is a far more sustainable ecosystem for both players and gaming companies and hence there are huge growth opportunities. Investors know this fact.”

Big opportunity for brands

With such investment, Indian gaming startups have opened up an enormous opportunity for advertisers. Majority of the gamers are youngsters and have critical buying power.

According to the latest ‘India Online Gaming Report’ of GroupM, the Indian online gaming industry is assessed to develop to more than Rs 15,000 crore in 2023, addressing a CAGR of almost 22%.

“Most of the potential of this platform is still unutilised”, an advertising chief said. He added, “Gaming platforms offer tremendous scopes such as in-app advertising, brand integration, rewards and advergaming. Brands can also reach their target audience through communities, e-sport tournaments, team associations, NFTs and influencers.”

As per a report of Research and Markets, the in-game advertising market worldwide is assessed to develop at a CAGR of 7% to reach US$220 billion by 2027, nearly two times contrasted with 2020.

Credit: e4m