India's GCCs: The New Powerhouses of Global Gaming
As the global gaming industry undergoes a shift, India's Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are emerging as strategic powerhouses driving game development, live operations, AI innovation, and blockchain experimentation. With a growing pool of talented engineers and a favourable economic proposition, India is poised to become the world's gaming research and tech capital.
India's gaming industry has undergone a remarkable transformation, catapulting the country to the forefront of the global gaming landscape. By bypassing the traditional PC and console-based gaming era, India has directly adopted mobile-based gaming, driven by the widespread penetration of affordable mobile data and the unforeseen consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pandemic's restrictive measures inadvertently fuelled a surge in new users, downloads, and app engagement, propelling India to become the world's largest online gaming market by app downloads. Today, the country boasts an impressive 400 million gamers and over 500 gaming studios.
India's video games market is also on a tear, with total game revenue poised to surge from $868 million in 2023 to $1,581 million by 2027, reflecting a robust 5-year CAGR of 17.2%. This impressive growth trajectory excludes revenue from Real Money Gaming (RMG), underscoring the market's inherent potential.
According to a KPMG report, India's online gaming market is poised for continued growth, projected to reach 600-650 million users by FY 2026. This meteoric rise underscores India's potential as a gaming powerhouse, driven by its vast and diverse population, increasing smartphone adoption, and a thriving startup ecosystem.
As India's gaming industry continues to evolve, specialised GCCs are likely to play a significant role in shaping the global gaming landscape, with opportunities for innovation, entrepreneurship, and job creation.
In August 2024, Flutter Entertainment, one of the world’s leading online sports betting and iGaming operators, opened a new GCC in Hyderabad, India, with over 700 employees working across data engineering, game integrity services, HR operations, procurement, safety and security, and customer operations.
According to the company the teams based in the GCC in Hyderabad “will play a pivotal role in supporting Flutter's growth globally across world-class brands including Paddy Power, Sisal, Sky Betting & Gaming, PokerStars, Sportsbet and Betfair, among others”.
Industry body Nasscom, in a recent post, said that global gaming giants like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Krafton are leveraging India's GCC ecosystem to achieve 30-50% cost savings, accelerate R&D cycles, and scale live operations globally. India's cost-efficient infrastructure, tax incentives, and talent density make it an attractive destination for gaming companies looking to optimize their operations.
According to Nasscom, India's young demographics and growing gaming market make it an ideal location for game development. With 1.5 million tech graduates annually, many of whom specialize in cutting-edge fields like AI/ML and game engines, India is well-positioned to drive innovation in the gaming industry. Companies like Nvidia and Zynga are already tapping into this talent pool, with Nvidia's team in Bangalore optimizing Cyberpunk 2077 for RTX and Zynga's Indian arm developing popular titles like FarmVille 3.
India's rise as a global gaming hub is a story of strategic arbitrage, driven by the country's cost-efficient infrastructure, talent density, and favourable economic proposition. As the gaming industry continues to shift, India's GCCs will emerge as key players, driving innovation and growth in the years to come.
