India's mobile games market set to reach $2.4bn by 2029

• India has more than 600m active mobile gamers.
• India now classifies game studios as Essential Services.

India's mobile gaming market is projected to reach $2.4bn by 2029, driven by over 600 million players growing at 9% year-over-year and expanding digital payment infrastructure.

That’s according to a new India State of Play report by MIXI Global Investments authored by Naavik with data from Sensor Tower and AppsFlyer, which describes India as the world's second largest mobile gaming market by downloads, recording 7.95bn annual installs in 2025.

Last year, India's mobile games market generated $1.1 billion. In 2026, it's forecast to reach $1.5bn in combined IAP and IAA revenues in 2026, posting 14.6% year-over-year revenue growth, though monetisation remains a significant gap. 

Despite leading Asia on downloads, India ranks sixth in the region on IAP revenue with $800m in yearly earnings, a tension the report frames as the market's central unresolved challenge.

Real money gaming regulations 

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, enacted on September 22nd 2025, effectively banned all online real-money games nationwide. 

Before the ban, the RMG sector was worth $3.7bn, contributing approximately 85% of total gaming revenues in India while supporting an estimated 200,000 direct and indirect jobs and generating around $2.3bn in taxes. 

The report argues the aftermath pushed RMG companies into workforce restructuring and strategic repositioning, with IAP and ad-monetised gaming moving to the centre of the ecosystem as a result.

The Supreme Court is still hearing constitutional challenges to PROGA, with outcomes that could range from full validation of the ban to substantial carve-outs for skill-based gaming.

The longer-term picture, however, tilts toward optimism for non-RMG gaming. Prime Minister Modi has publicly recognised the gaming sector's potential. 

India's Maharashtra states has committed a $390m outlay to fund gaming studios and infrastructure, and the government's Technology Vision 2035 blueprint targets $100bn in value creation and $10bn in annual exports by 2035.

India now classifies game studios as Essential Services, and the AVGC-XR sector covering animation, visual effects, gaming, comics and extended reality is being actively incentivised through a dedicated $47m corpus anchored by the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies. 

Top-performing genres

Shooter, Strategy and Puzzle emerged as India's three top-performing genres. Shooter titles dominate IAP revenue - with Garena's Free Fire Max, still available in the country despite a Free Fire ban, and PUBG Mobile proving particularly popular.

In the puzzle genre, 'match swap' commands 71% market share of India's $93m Puzzle category by revenue, but downloads are down 18.7% and engagement has fallen 22.9% in 2025, a trend the report attributes to the genre's skew toward older female audiences struggling to resonate in a market still dominated by young male players.

You can access the full report here.