Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha poses during the promotion for India’s first Virtual Reality Haptic Gaming Experience Action franchise, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, in Mumbai, Jan. 27. (AFP/Getty Images)

@Siliconeer #Siliconeer @Google #Google #GoogleIndia @GoogleIndia #KPMG @KPMG #IndianOnlineGaming #Tech – The online gamer base in India is expected to almost triple to 310 million people from the current 120 million by 2021, according to a report by Google India and KPMG.

While projecting the gamer base to grow, the report has also estimated the industry to be worth $1 billion by 2021.

“The online gaming industry in India is expected to gain momentum and grow to $1 billion by 2021, from the current $360 million, at a growth rate of 20 percent.

“With a 117 percent spike in searches for online games by Indians, it is estimated that the current online gamer base of 120 million gamers in 2016 will grow to 310 million by 2021,” the report said.

As per the report, more than half of the gamers opt for a particular game through referrals and influence of their peer group.

It also said that 75 percent of these gamers own smartphones worth less than Rs. 20,000, a third of their online entertainment wallet is spent on games.

“While up to 6 different games are simultaneously played by young gamers, mostly strategy games find their way into heavy gamers lives and casual gamers opt for puzzle games,” the report said.

Driven by a growth in smartphone user base and digital payments, the industry has seen 100 percent growth in online gaming searches compared to last year.

It also found that revenue generated by top 100 ‘freemium’ gaming applications grew by 22 times over paid games.

Based on a primary qualitative and quantitative research executed by Nielsen Holdings, the report covered over 3,000 respondents, aged between 18 and 55, across 16 Indian cities like Delhi-NCR, Jaipur, Lucknow, Chennai, and Bangalore among others.