The State of Casual and HyperCasual Gaming in India

In the financial year 2023, gaming and interactive media focused Venture Capital firm Lumikai estimated the size of the casual and hyper-casual gaming market in India to be pegged at $700 million. By 2028, this is projected to grow to $2.3 billion, presenting a sizable opportunity by any measure. Interestingly, most developers and publishers in the space have continued to view India as a source of cost efficient talent, capable of extracting revenue from players in developed nations, rather than focusing on monetization via Indian gamers and advertisers. 

To better understand this phenomenon and its nuances, I spoke with two industry operators who have walked the talk: Surojit Roy, a successful founder in the space whose previous company (Firescore Interactive) built multiple casual gaming hits amassing over 200 million downloads, and Anurag Choudhary, the founder of Felicity Games, a startup that has recently been in the news for having raised capital from prominent investors such as Kunal Shah of Cred and Samer Pitalwalla of Google.

Key takeaways from the conversation include:

• The number of studios and game developers in India

• Felicity Games’ process of identifying games with talent, then optimizing and scaling them

• Surojit Roy’s views on Hypercasual game development in India 10+ years ago versus now

• A comparison of customer acquisition cost benchmarks for U.S. audiences, then versus now.

• The role of organic acquisition—are Google and Apple still the kingmakers?

• Monetization strategies: balancing advertisements versus in-app purchases.

• Recommended first steps for aspiring game developers in India