How India Is Poised To Become The World's Largest Gaming Hub A recent report has come out with interesting insights about the esports industry, pointing out at how India is poised to become world's largest gaming hub.

A recent report has come out with interesting insights about the esports industry, pointing out at how India is poised to become world's largest gaming hub. With multiplayer games making a comeback, prominent esports titles almost doubled to 19 in 2023, with 1.8 million Indians participating in them, and which were available across 20 platforms.

Here are the significant findings from the report:

1. Game streamers saw an increase in viewership of 20% to 25%, particularly in Tier-II cities
As per the EY-Loco gamer survey, 78% of respondents had participated in Esports events and they all viewed at least one tournament a month.

2. Shooting games remained the favourite in India, generating 24% of in-app purchase revenues, followed by strategy games.

3. Game platform Loco has estimated that online viewership grew 20% in 2023. It believes that 4% of total YouTube viewership is also related to gaming.

4. Watch parties are growing, where groups of fans watch games together and interact with each other during game play.

5. Apart from the growth in smartphone users in India of over 30 million, low data charges and increasing per capita income, the popularity of gaming influencers (which attract significant followers on social media and short video platforms) contributed to attracting new cohorts of players. Smartphone users, who are expected to grow from 574 to 640 million by 2026. Wired (or similar) broadband, which should almost double from 38 million to 68 million.

Source: FICCI-EY Report titled 'Reinvent: India's media and entertainment sector is innovating for the future'