India’s digital entertainment landscape is undergoing a structural shift as gaming and interactive media move from casual pastimes to a major monetised industry.
The country’s digital media and entertainment market is valued at $9.3 billion in FY25, with gaming and interactive media emerging as the fastest growing categories. These two segments are expanding 1.5 times faster than the overall industry, according to a joint report released on Thursday by Bitkraft Ventures and Redseer Strategy Consultants.
The report attributes the growth to rapid monetisation, widespread UPI adoption and a greater willingness among consumers to pay for digital experiences. India has 835 million internet users and a median age of 29, making it one of the youngest and most engaged smartphone markets globally. The country has 700 million smartphone users and 500 million gamers.
Gaming and interactive media together contribute $2.4 billion to the digital entertainment market in FY25. The report estimates this will rise to $7.8 billion by FY30, supported by product innovation and deeper adoption in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.
Following recent regulatory intervention that banned online money gaming, growth has shifted to digital gaming and esports. The digital gaming segment is projected to grow at an 18 percent CAGR from FY25 to FY30, reaching $4.3 billion by FY30.
Growth will be driven by social features, vernacular content and AI led game development. In-app purchases are expected to overtake advertising as the primary revenue stream by FY30. More than 500 gaming focused start ups have been launched in the past five years.
Esports is projected to grow at a 26 percent CAGR to reach $132 million by FY30, led by sponsorship revenue and increasing institutional support from colleges and tournament organisers.
Industry leaders say that Indian consumer behaviour has shifted materially over the past three years. “Earlier, people played games but did not spend on them. Spending on games delivers more entertainment value than traditional media,” said Tandon.
Anuj Tandon, partner at Bitkraft Ventures, outlined three key growth drivers for the digital media and entertainment sector.
"The first big driver of growth is consumer spending on gaming. India is a young gaming market compared to China, Japan, the US or Europe, which have had a gaming culture for 30 to 40 years. Only in the last decade have we started becoming a nation that not just plays games but pays for them. COVID accelerated this behaviour. People realised that spending 100 rupees on a game gives them four to five hours of entertainment, compared with two hours in a movie theatre. That perceived value shift is driving higher willingness to pay.
The second growth driver is micro drama and short form video. India is a smartphone first content consumption market. Micro drama fits the format perfectly and we are seeing the same early signs of rapid adoption that China saw. Many young start ups are getting funded in this space. Of the overall market expansion, two to three times growth will come from short form video alone.
The third growth driver is astrology and devotion. Culturally, these categories have strong monetisation potential in India and we see that translating into digital spends."
Piyush Kumar, founder and CEO of game streaming platform Rooter, said the Indian gaming market will be extremely exciting over the next three to five years. "For the first time, there is clarity on what can scale in India. We are already seeing international developers build for India and more Indian studios creating games that can travel globally. The number of active gaming titles will grow from just five to ten today to around 25 to 30 across genres."
"We will also see a shift in consumer behaviour. For many young users, gaming has already become their social network. Monetisation, which used to be a challenge, has fundamentally changed with UPI. People are now comfortable spending money online, whether on streaming, audio apps or gaming. Average annual spending per gamer in midcore to hardcore categories has jumped from around two to four dollars to almost 25 dollars. And this is before India has a large pipeline of successful titles," he added.
Esports will push gaming into the mainstream, similar to the impact of IPL on cricket. "With physical and digital events, ticketing and strong support from companies and the government, including the Prime Minister publicly championing gaming and esports, this sector is becoming a cultural movement. For the first time, capital and talent are flowing into gaming at scale and all signals are positive," he said.
Anurag Chaudhary, founder and CEO of Felicity Games, said success in hybrid casual gaming is not about building one big hit.
“Broadly, we use India as our prototyping base because, in hybrid casual gaming, three principles matter the most: imitate, iterate and innovate. We start by imitating what has already worked in other markets. China and Vietnam followed the same approach. They took successful global concepts and added their own spin. Once we have a working version, we iterate to make it better than the original. And after we see scale and strong metrics, we innovate. This philosophy is part of our culture, even when working with Indian studios that earlier struggled to break out globally," he noted.
The interactive media market is expected to grow from $440 million in FY25 to $2.7 billion by FY30, driven by the rise of content and connect platforms tailored for mobile first consumers in smaller cities.
Content platforms will double their share of the interactive media market to 36 percent by FY30. Audio streaming is forecast to grow from $72 million to $300 million, helped by daily engagement and UPI AutoPay models adopted by platforms like Pocket FM and Kuku FM. Micro dramas, still nascent in India, are projected to reach $699 million by FY30, mirroring China’s rapid adoption of short, serialised mobile content.
Connect platforms, which account for 82 percent of the interactive media market in FY25, are scaling rapidly as consumers seek more social interaction. Social discovery platforms, currently a $202 million market, are expected to triple by FY30 through monetisation formats such as virtual tipping and private one to one calling.
Astro and devotional tech, which is digitising a $40 billion offline category, is projected to grow from $165 million to $1.3 billion by FY30. AI companionship is emerging as the next frontier, backed by $400 million in global funding, with Indian start ups building localised solutions for companionship and tutoring.
Investor interest is rising across these categories. “Micro dramas have seen a significant amount of investor activity. In terms of the number of deals, micro drama and astrology are currently the top two categories. These are mostly pre seed or seed stage investments. Larger funding has gone into audio platforms such as Pocket FM and Kuku FM,” said Tandon.
The country’s digital media and entertainment market is valued at $9.3 billion in FY25, with gaming and interactive media emerging as the fastest growing categories. These two segments are expanding 1.5 times faster than the overall industry, according to a joint report released on Thursday by Bitkraft Ventures and Redseer Strategy Consultants.
The report attributes the growth to rapid monetisation, widespread UPI adoption and a greater willingness among consumers to pay for digital experiences. India has 835 million internet users and a median age of 29, making it one of the youngest and most engaged smartphone markets globally. The country has 700 million smartphone users and 500 million gamers.
Gaming and interactive media together contribute $2.4 billion to the digital entertainment market in FY25. The report estimates this will rise to $7.8 billion by FY30, supported by product innovation and deeper adoption in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.
Following recent regulatory intervention that banned online money gaming, growth has shifted to digital gaming and esports. The digital gaming segment is projected to grow at an 18 percent CAGR from FY25 to FY30, reaching $4.3 billion by FY30.
Growth will be driven by social features, vernacular content and AI led game development. In-app purchases are expected to overtake advertising as the primary revenue stream by FY30. More than 500 gaming focused start ups have been launched in the past five years.
Esports is projected to grow at a 26 percent CAGR to reach $132 million by FY30, led by sponsorship revenue and increasing institutional support from colleges and tournament organisers.
Industry leaders say that Indian consumer behaviour has shifted materially over the past three years. “Earlier, people played games but did not spend on them. Spending on games delivers more entertainment value than traditional media,” said Tandon.
Anuj Tandon, partner at Bitkraft Ventures, outlined three key growth drivers for the digital media and entertainment sector.
"The first big driver of growth is consumer spending on gaming. India is a young gaming market compared to China, Japan, the US or Europe, which have had a gaming culture for 30 to 40 years. Only in the last decade have we started becoming a nation that not just plays games but pays for them. COVID accelerated this behaviour. People realised that spending 100 rupees on a game gives them four to five hours of entertainment, compared with two hours in a movie theatre. That perceived value shift is driving higher willingness to pay.
The second growth driver is micro drama and short form video. India is a smartphone first content consumption market. Micro drama fits the format perfectly and we are seeing the same early signs of rapid adoption that China saw. Many young start ups are getting funded in this space. Of the overall market expansion, two to three times growth will come from short form video alone.
The third growth driver is astrology and devotion. Culturally, these categories have strong monetisation potential in India and we see that translating into digital spends."
Piyush Kumar, founder and CEO of game streaming platform Rooter, said the Indian gaming market will be extremely exciting over the next three to five years. "For the first time, there is clarity on what can scale in India. We are already seeing international developers build for India and more Indian studios creating games that can travel globally. The number of active gaming titles will grow from just five to ten today to around 25 to 30 across genres."
"We will also see a shift in consumer behaviour. For many young users, gaming has already become their social network. Monetisation, which used to be a challenge, has fundamentally changed with UPI. People are now comfortable spending money online, whether on streaming, audio apps or gaming. Average annual spending per gamer in midcore to hardcore categories has jumped from around two to four dollars to almost 25 dollars. And this is before India has a large pipeline of successful titles," he added.
Esports will push gaming into the mainstream, similar to the impact of IPL on cricket. "With physical and digital events, ticketing and strong support from companies and the government, including the Prime Minister publicly championing gaming and esports, this sector is becoming a cultural movement. For the first time, capital and talent are flowing into gaming at scale and all signals are positive," he said.
Anurag Chaudhary, founder and CEO of Felicity Games, said success in hybrid casual gaming is not about building one big hit.
“Broadly, we use India as our prototyping base because, in hybrid casual gaming, three principles matter the most: imitate, iterate and innovate. We start by imitating what has already worked in other markets. China and Vietnam followed the same approach. They took successful global concepts and added their own spin. Once we have a working version, we iterate to make it better than the original. And after we see scale and strong metrics, we innovate. This philosophy is part of our culture, even when working with Indian studios that earlier struggled to break out globally," he noted.
The interactive media market is expected to grow from $440 million in FY25 to $2.7 billion by FY30, driven by the rise of content and connect platforms tailored for mobile first consumers in smaller cities.
Content platforms will double their share of the interactive media market to 36 percent by FY30. Audio streaming is forecast to grow from $72 million to $300 million, helped by daily engagement and UPI AutoPay models adopted by platforms like Pocket FM and Kuku FM. Micro dramas, still nascent in India, are projected to reach $699 million by FY30, mirroring China’s rapid adoption of short, serialised mobile content.
Connect platforms, which account for 82 percent of the interactive media market in FY25, are scaling rapidly as consumers seek more social interaction. Social discovery platforms, currently a $202 million market, are expected to triple by FY30 through monetisation formats such as virtual tipping and private one to one calling.
Astro and devotional tech, which is digitising a $40 billion offline category, is projected to grow from $165 million to $1.3 billion by FY30. AI companionship is emerging as the next frontier, backed by $400 million in global funding, with Indian start ups building localised solutions for companionship and tutoring.
Investor interest is rising across these categories. “Micro dramas have seen a significant amount of investor activity. In terms of the number of deals, micro drama and astrology are currently the top two categories. These are mostly pre seed or seed stage investments. Larger funding has gone into audio platforms such as Pocket FM and Kuku FM,” said Tandon.
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