Video games in India

Video gaming in India is an emerging market. As investments continue to rise, the video game market is expected to grow in India.
India is one of the top five mobile gaming markets in the world in terms of number of users. In FY 2019, online gaming in India was estimated at market with an estimated 300 million gamers.
History and overview.
In October 2005, Level Up! Games was the first to distribute a massively multiplayer online game in India with "Ragnarok Online" and was soon followed by other companies like Sify with the game "A3". The latter are South Korean games whose content has been adapted in order to please the people of the country. However, these games were only modestly successful.
Video games play a crucial role in the development of the market by attracting and retaining customers and, conversely, cybercafés contribute to the promotion of video games. Many companies encourage video gaming in India, such as MTV, Cypher and National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) centres.
Statistics.
Like China and South Korea, India is experiencing strong growth in online gaming. With between 35-50 million internet users, the country is attracting interest from the online video game industry, which is difficult to hack.
With a turnover of $890 million in 2018, the video game sector is still underdeveloped compared to other Asian countries, such as China and South Korea. However, many video game companies are beginning to invest, and India could become an important market for this sector.
To cite a study conducted by KPMG, the number of game development companies in India today stands at around 275. This number was a mere 25 in the year 2010.
One of the factors driving the growth of the video game market is its large number of cyber cafes with more than 100,000 in 2006, 40% of which are used to play online.
In 2008, there were 180,000 cyber cafes in India but by 2017, it declined to 50,000, one of primary reasons for decline was rules of IT Act, which caused licensing issues and other restrictions.
Mobile gaming.
As of 2019, India is one of the top five mobile gaming markets in the world in terms of number of users. In FY 2019, online gaming in India was estimated at ₹6,200 crore market with an estimated 300 million gamers.
"PUBG Mobile" became the most popular online game in India in 2018, as of January 2020, India became "PUBG Mobile"'s largest market in the world with 116 million downloads, which is 21% of 555 million "PUBG Mobile" players worldwide.
Estimates suggest that India's mobile games market will be worth $1.1 billion by 2020, and number of users projected to become 628 million by then.
Video gaming is growing very quickly especially in the mobile space with the advent of cheap and affordable smartphones. A recent survey has found that women mobile gamers are actually more active than men in India.
During the lockdowns of 2020 there was an increase in the amount of mobile gamers in India.
Local industry.
Local Indian video game studios are yet to make a significant impact in the world market mostly relegated to mobile games that have development cycles of not more than 3–6 months. Video game studios are slowly sprouting up around India, most notably in Bangalore; which is often called the "Silicon Valley of India".
Many studios in India derive most of their income from outsourcing to foreign companies. Although there are a few studios working on their own titles, most of the studios are mobile based. There are a few studios working on larger projects on PC and console like Bangalore based Tentworks Interactive.
Tentworks Interactive recently revealed India's first major PC title. The studio unveiled their upcoming game, "City Block Builder" at EGX. It is set for release in 2021for PC. "City Block Builder" also recently won Best of EGX (2019) in London by "Cultured Vultures Magazine". This marks the first time that an Indian title has won such an award in a foreign expo.
The indie game scene in India is also growing most recently with small indie title like "Raji:An Indian Epic" being released on steam and receiving positive reviews on steam.
Esports.
India won bronze medal in Asian Games 2018 where esports was a demonstration sport. "Tirth Mehta", from Bhuj, Gujarat aka "gcttirth" became India's first esports athlete to win a medal for the country in esports for Hearthstone, a video game which was part of 6 game titles selected for esports at Asian Games 2018. Another esports athlete "Karan Manganani" from Jaipur was placed 4th for Clash Royale, another game title.
The total prize money in Indian esports in 2016 was ₹77 lakhs. This grew to ₹2.06 crores in 2017 with "Dota 2" and tournaments contributing to 87% of the total amount.
The total announced prize money in Indian esports in 2018 grew to ₹5.63 crores of which ₹3.84 crores is attributable to tournaments that actually took place during the year. The share of "Dota 2" and "CS:GO" tournaments dropped to 61% as "PUBG Mobile" tournaments accounted for 18% of the total prize money during the year.
In 2019, the total prize money in Indian eSports grew by 180%. International eSports events such as ESL One Mumbai and DreamHack: Delhi 2019 were hosted in the country.
In October 2019, international esports team organization Fnatic announced its expansion into India by acquiring the Indian "PUBG Mobile" team XSpark. In January 2020, Fnatic's Indian "PUBG Mobile" team moved into a temporary bootcamp in Mumbai.
Piracy.
The Indian video games market is very varied. While there are a section of hardcore gamers, there are still many gamers playing cartridge games on TV and handheld devices. 
This has led to the proliferation of pirated, second hand and knock-offs to meet the needs of a diverse range of consumers with different access to money and information.
With a piracy rate of software and consoles of over 80% and a penetration rate of PC still low, India's video game market has long lagged behind the rest of world, publishers and distributors of video games are struggling to find their place.
This delay is also explained by the fact that the country has traditionally never had a real culture of gaming. However, this situation is changing due to the increase in the average income of Indians and the increasing interest in internet and entertainment.
Controversies.
In March 2019, "PUBG Mobile" was banned in the Indian state of Gujarat after the local government decided the game was "too addicting and violent" and an unnecessary distraction during exam season. A number of students caught playing the game were arrested as a result. The ban was lifted in some cities in the state after March as exam season had ended.
Amidst the ongoing 2020 China–India skirmishes, on June 29, 2020, ' was officially banned in India along with other 58 Chinese apps like TikTok, UC Browser, and Xender due to privacy concerns. ' was one of top grossing mobile games in India. On September 2, 2020, the Indian government banned "PUBG Mobile, PUBG Mobile Lite" along with more than 100 other Chinese apps, most made by Tencent and Netease, asserting the apps were "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting user data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India". India was "PUBG Mobile"s largest market with the country accounting for 175 million downloads and 24% of global users.