The year 2020 in the context of the Indian online gaming industry was dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown. With outdoor mediums of socializing and entertainment facing restrictions, people opted to meet their social & entertainment needs via online gaming & OTT platforms.

This led to a massive surge in registrations and user engagement for online gaming platforms.

“Consumers are rebalancing rather than reducing expenditure away from outdoor entertainment, cinema, and concerts to OTT and gaming,” KPMG stated.

Gaming app downloads skyrocketed in Q1 2020 & in-app purchases also saw a steep rise. According to AppBrain, 3 out of the top 5 highest-grossing apps in India are from the gaming space.

Generally speaking, gaming platforms witnessed 60-70% user growth, with time spent going up by 50-60% during the nationwide lockdown, according to industry estimates.

The game that saw the most growth during this period was Ludo King. Ludo King recording unbelievable growth in downloads & traffic during the whole of 2020.

“Earlier, gamers used to play two to three tournaments a day. Now, it is seven to nine a day on average,” Soham Thacker, Founder, Gamerji (esports platform) told YourStory.

Since 2019, real money gaming has grown steadily and is a Rs 2,000 crore industry today with 30 million gamers. The sector is poised to grow 3.5x by 2025 and is expected to command a larger wallet share in the future, according to AIGF.

India currently comprises more than 320 million gamers, with this number foreseen to grow at a rate of 47% by the year 2022, as per Maple Capital Advisors.