GDAI Report Maps Funding Gaps in India’s Gaming Industry

The Game Developer Association of India (GDAI) launched ‘GameDev Outlook 2026' at the India Game Developer Conference (IGDC) in Chennai on Oct 28, 2026. The report identifies publishing expertise, funding, and production capabilities as major challenges for Indian studios seeking to compete in global markets.

Developed with PhonePe Appstore as chief sponsor and The Dialogue as research partner, the report calls for stronger support to turn creative talent into commercially viable businesses.

India’s gaming market generated an estimated $1.04B USD in revenue in 2025, up 14.8% year-over-year (YoY), with around 511M players. Annual revenue per user stood at $2.04, highlighting the gap between audience scale and monetization.

Indian Game Developers Focus on Original IP

The primary findings from the report include:

• 41.3% of industry submissions come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 locations.
• 49% prioritize entering international markets, while 38.5% seek capital or publishing deals.
• 75% identify capital or publishing investment as a growth barrier.
• 82.7% of surveyed studios prioritize launching new intellectual property (IP).

GDAI Chairperson, Sridhar Muppidi, stated that India’s “young and diverse creative base” has strong ambitions for original intellectual property (IP). He stressed the need for “capital at every stage” and education built around real team projects.

Muppidi also added that GDAI Vision 2035 and the Union Budget’s talent-development allocation could support the next generation of Indian game developers and artists.

In an interview with Outlook Respawn at IGDC 2026, the COO of Funcell Games, an India-based gaming company widely known for its title Pawn to Don, discussed how the studio maintains originality in the crowded hyper-casual gaming market. The conversation explored its approach to narrative-driven gameplay and creating its own trends rather than following existing games.

PhonePe Data Highlights Audience Opportunities

The report examines gamers’ use of non-gaming applications to inform user acquisition strategies.

It found that 40% of PhonePe Appstore users navigate in regional languages. Midcore gamers engage with travel, finance, and business apps, hardcore gamers with media and audio, and casual gamers with utilities and shopping.

PhonePe Appstore Chief Business Officer, Priya Narasimhan, identified user acquisition as a major hurdle and highlighted the platform’s digital goods marketplace as a distribution channel.

Budget and Industry Collaboration

Co-sponsored by NODWIN Gaming, Chimera VC, Gameberry Labs, and 1312 Interactive, the report calls for collaboration among developers, publishers, investors, and educational institutions. It cites the Union Budget 2026-27 proposal to allocate INR 250 Cr for Content Creator Labs in 15K secondary schools and 500 colleges.

The findings draw on 104 industry respondents, 13 academic institutions, and stakeholder consultations. These data points are indicative and do not represent national estimates.

Altogether, India’s gaming growth will depend on turning creative talent into globally competitive studios through funding, publishing support, and original IPs.