India Banned Money Games and Lost 54 Million Players. Video Games Grew 17%
A year after India outlawed real-money gaming, its video games market is up 17% to $1.5 billion, even as the player base shrank. Why the world's biggest download market still earns so little, and why that may be changing.
For most of the 2020s, the biggest names in Indian "gaming" were not game studios. They were fantasy sports and card apps such as Dream11 and MPL, where players put in money hoping to win more. They sponsored cricket teams, filled TV breaks and, by one estimate, made up a $2.3 billion business.
Then, in August 2025, India's Parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, and the President signed it within days. It banned all forms of real-money online gaming, while promising to promote esports and online social games. The ban took effect on October 1, 2025.
A year on, the first big study of the aftermath is out, and it tells a surprising story: India lost millions of players, but its actual video games business grew.
What the ban did
The government argued that money games were a public-health risk. Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said about 45 crore (450 million) Indians had been affected and that households had lost more than ₹20,000 crore in savings. Officials also linked the sector to money laundering.
The companies folded their core businesses almost immediately. Dream11 stopped paid contests, and its CEO Harsh Jain said there was "no legal pathway" to continue. MPL shut off deposits. Zupee kept only free games such as Ludo, and PokerBaazi paused operations.
The new numbers
The Lumikai State of India Interactive Media Report 2025, covered in March 2026, is the first big attempt to measure India after the ban. Lumikai, an Indian games-focused venture fund, found:
- India's video games market, not counting real-money gaming, reached $1.5 billion in calendar 2025, up 17%.
- The country's gamer base fell from 609 million to 555 million, a drop of 9%, as money-game players left.
- About 25% of players pay for something, a share that held steady.
- Lumikai expects the market to reach $3.2 billion by 2030, growing about 17% a year.
All ten of India's top-grossing games come from global franchises, including Free Fire, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans, Call of Duty, Pokémon GO and Roblox.
Where did the money-game players go? Lumikai's survey found their daily time on micro-dramas, short vertical video series, rose about 40%, music streaming about 43% and social media about 24%. They spent about an hour a day on regular games. And Lumikai's rough estimate is that about one in three former real-money players may have moved to offshore platforms the ban cannot easily reach.
Why India earns so little
The puzzle of Indian games has always been the gap between downloads and dollars. Hundreds of millions of people play, but the market is a fraction of Korea's or Japan's.
Lumikai's numbers show why. A paying mid-core player, someone playing shooters, strategy or RPGs, spends about $15 a year on average, while a casual player spends about $3. Games made up 36% of revenue among India's top 25 apps, against 44% globally, and only 8% of downloads, against 16% globally. Advertising is cheap: the average rate for showing a thousand ads was about $1.10, and $2.43 for rewarded ads, where players watch a video for an in-game prize.
In other words, India is huge, young and online, but most of its players have not yet been asked to pay, or cannot afford to.
Why it matters
India's ban was one of the most dramatic pieces of games regulation anywhere, and it wiped out a multi-billion-dollar industry almost overnight. But it also removed a confusing overlap between gambling and games, and the first data suggests the video games business underneath is healthy and growing fast.
WGC's take: India is the one giant market where real growth in players and spending is still ahead, not behind. The studios that work out how to make games Indian players will pay for, at Indian prices, will have one of the biggest opportunities in the business.
What to watch
- Whether the government's promised support for esports and social games turns into funding or new rules.
- Offshore money-game apps and how the government tries to block them.
- Global publishers, including Korean ones, building India-specific games and pricing.