The gaming industry in India is expected to grow by 20-30 percent and will likely create one lakh new direct and indirect employment by the time FY23 draws to a close, according to a new report from staffing company TeamLease Digital, which was released on Friday, November 18.

As per the report ‘Gaming: Tomorrow's Blockbuster,’ which takes a deep dive into the burgeoning gaming market, currently, there are 50,000 individuals working directly in the industry, with 30 percent of the workforce being programmers and developers.

The report projected that over the course of the fiscal year, the industry will grow the economy in a variety of fields, including programming (game developers, unity developers), testing (games test engineering, QA lead), animation (animators), design (motion graphic designers, virtual reality designers), artist (VFX and concept artists), and other roles (content writers, gaming journalists, web analyst).

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The report also provided a thorough analysis of the sector's hiring and skilling trends as well as growth opportunities. In terms of salaries, the highest-paying positions in the gaming industry are game producers (Rs 10 lakh per annum), game designers (Rs 6.5 lakh per annum), software engineers (Rs 5.5 lakh per annum), game developers (Rs 5.25 lakh per annum), and QA testers (Rs 5.11 lakh per annum), it said..

The gaming industry is the next sunrise industry, according to Sunil Chemmankotil, CEO of Teamlease Digital, citing the sector's growing user base and the opportunities it is slated to provide. "It offers jobs across sectors, and that makes it more in-demand. Despite facing hurdles owing to frequent regulatory changes, the gaming industry is expected to create 1 lakh jobs by FY23 and grow 2.5x by 2026.”

"We are on the verge of exponential development in the sector," says Munira Loliwala, Business Head-Specialised Staffing, TeamLease Digital, highlighting the industry's potential prospects. This industry is on the trajectory to grow by 20 percent-30 percent by FY 23 and is expected to reach INR 38,097 crore by 2026. With a 480 million strong gaming community, India is second largest globally, after China."

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"To address this growth, employment in the sector is going to significantly increase. Today, we have a 90 percent millennials and Gen-Z workforce and the majority of these professionals are aspiring to work in emerging sectors like gaming. By FY 23, close to 1 lakh new jobs will be created in the sector and this is further projected to increase by 50 percent, taking the industry overall growth trajectory to more than 113 percent by 2025," Loliwala informed.

The study outlined the academic requirements and skill sets that companies seek. Candidates looking to work in the gaming sector should have degrees ranging from a BCA in Software to an M.Tech/B.Tech in IT and a diploma in specialised languages like C++, Java, and DevOps, it stated.

"With the confluence of Web3 and Metaverse, gamification is not just restricted to traditional gaming avenues but has extended to other emerging tech sectors like E-commerce, FinTech and Education etc. Over the next few years, aided by the sturdy growth in the sector, we will see a catapult impact on employment as well," Loliwala added.

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Furthermore, the report indicated that investments in the industry would keep rising in order to support the growth vision. India currently ranks sixth on the list of the largest gaming markets in the world in terms of revenue (global market revenue approximately at Rs 17,24,800 crore).

By FY23, the industry is anticipated to bring in foreign direct investment (FDI) worth Rs 780 crore. Stakeholders across the entire sector are also striving to develop policies to control the ecosystem.

The report concluded that there would be a noticeable increase in the number of women working in the gaming industry and more women holding leadership positions as a result of the female audience's rising engagement in the gaming industry — which is already more than 40 percent.

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(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)