India has secured nearly 18% of the global Android game downloads, solidifying its position as one of the largest mobile gaming markets worldwide. A recent report by Mintegral revealed that India contributed to 17.8% of global Android game downloads and 2.8% of global iOS downloads, emphasizing its strong inclination towards Android-based gaming. The country predominantly relies on Android, accounting for 97.5% of all game downloads within its borders, compared to the global average of 85.9%.
India stands out as a cost-efficient gaming acquisition market, with a significant 19.9-fold variance between the global Android cost-per-install benchmarks and the country’s average cost-per-install. The report also highlighted substantial differences in advertising economics, with a notable 22-fold gap between global Android rewarded-video effective cost per mille benchmarks and the Indian market’s eCPMs. In India, 63% of the total gaming revenue across platforms is generated through in-app advertising, while around 70% of Android gaming revenue originates from in-app purchases.
Casual, hypercasual, and mid-core or hardcore games collectively constitute 57.5% of game downloads in India, offering extensive opportunities for user acquisition. Monetization strategies vary across genres, with in-app purchases being a significant revenue source for Android gaming. Notably, global gaming apps tend to utilize a more diverse range of user acquisition channels compared to Indian publishers. For instance, top global puzzle games leverage an average of 20 acquisition channels, whereas Indian counterparts use 14 channels on average.
The study also highlighted that Google’s ecosystem plays a pivotal role in driving gaming installs in India, with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and alternative app distribution channels contributing to approximately one-fourth of the total installs.
