Creative Economy · AVGC

Cheap data and smartphones turned India into one of the world's biggest audiences for online content and games. What began as an entertainment boom is now a policy priority — a 'Create in India' push to build a home-grown creative and gaming industry.

India's online gaming revenue reached about ₹23,200 crore in 2024, with about 48.8 crore online gamers (EY estimates), and the media & entertainment industry reached ₹2.78 lakh crore in 2025 (FICCI-EY). State AVGC-XR policies, creator labs announced in Budget 2026-27, and the Online Gaming Rules in force since 1 May 2026 aim to make India a global content, animation and gaming hub.

AVGC — Animation, Visual effects, Gaming and Comics (plus extended reality) — is the fast-growing digital side of India's creative economy. India already does huge volumes of VFX and animation work for global studios, much like IT services did for software. Policy now aims to move up from being a back-end vendor to creating original Indian IP — through a National Centre of Excellence, skilling, and promotion under the 'Create in India' banner and the new WAVES summit.

India's media and entertainment sector is worth tens of billions of dollars, and AVGC is a fast-growing slice of it, powered by cheap data, a young audience and world-class technical talent. The next step is capturing more of the value — moving from doing other countries' effects to owning globally successful Indian characters, games and films, building studios and IP at home, and turning India's storytelling heritage into a genuine creative-export powerhouse.

Online gamers about 48.8 crore (2024, EY estimate); online gaming revenue ₹23,200 cr (2024); M&E ₹2.78 lakh cr (2025, FICCI-EY); creator labs for 15,000 schools and 500 colleges (Budget 2026-27). Sources: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, PIB (industry estimates).