The Internet has become available in almost every corner of India, opening up the way for the ever-growing online gaming industry to blossom in one of the most populous countries on the planet. The new technologies have gradually been introduced to Indian cities at a very slow pace until 2019. Nonetheless, the coronavirus outbreak acted as a heavy accelerant for the highly-opportunistic niche to grow in an incredible fashion throughout the whole of 2020.

We will keep the main focus on the gaming industry, eSports in particular, in this article, but we'd like to highlight the whole internet growth by mentioning the immense rise of other online industries and businesses. Websites like BettingBilly India best show the growth of online gambling across the country. These sites show an increasing number of online gambling operators available to the Indians. The same can be said for numerous gaming pages. The games have never been more accessible and affordable, and that’s all significantly contributing to the fantastic rise of the eSports potential here.

The main catalysts for the eSports growth in India

Aside from the Covid-19 pandemic, the sudden rise in popularity of online streaming platforms such as Twitch and Youtube has greatly contributed to the new era of eSports in India. The appearance of multiplayer online games such as Fortnite and PUBG has also played a significant part in the process.

Moving forward, the mobile industry has followed the aforementioned branches. The number of smartphone users grew from less than 60% before 2019 to more than 70% during the lockdown period. Parallel to this, the time spent on mobile games per user and per week rose from 151 minutes to 218 minutes in the process. Note that these numbers are even greater by now, and are only expected to grow in the months/years to come.

As a consequence, eSports accumulated around 10% of aggregate online gaming revenue in India last year. Similarly to everything mentioned above, we have reasons to expect further growth.

Where do India’s eSports industry stand when compared to other countries?

At the moment, India are the 16^th country in the world in total revenue from online gaming, according to Forbes. Revenue of $1.17 billion from this niche only represents a massive advancement compared to the last decade, but the country has the potential to do even better and stay head to head with the planet's industry heavyweights. China have the largest online gaming market on the globe ($37.9 billion). The likes of the United States, Japan, and Korea Republic follow, but India are slowly getting there, too.  

The number of developers in 2010 v 2020

The comparison between India’s online gaming market in 2010 and 2020 will probably best show you the extent to which the country has grown in this area. Eleven years ago, there were no more than 25 game suppliers in India. The number has grown ten times since, with more than 250 distinct developers cruising around the highly-opportunistic market.

We can now see the likes of Tencent, Alibaba, Nazara, and Paytm all heavily investing in the Indian market, helping its further growth. We should thus not be surprised to see rises in eSports prize pool money. It grew at a CAGR of 123.3% from 2016 to 2018 only. Given how appealing it is to the young population all over the world, it is very easy to understand why more and more Indians see eSports as a viable career option. Only sky is the limit for this niche, we’d say.