India’s online gaming ecosystem has undergone an unprecedented change following the enactment of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 (PROGA). To understand what these changes look like on the ground, Primus Partners and the Institute for Competitiveness (IFC) undertook a comprehensive study titled “Trends in India’s Online Gaming Landscape Post–PROGA 2025: Evidence of Rising Offshore Participation.”
The analysis draws on publicly available evidence, industry reporting, and insights from a pilot user survey to identify a set of trends now visible in the market.
Survey findings indicate that players continue to engage with online gaming and are increasingly doing so on offshore platforms, with participation rising from 68% prior to the ban to nearly 82% afterwards. User spending has also shifted upwards, with nearly 52.4% of users continuing to participate in real money gaming and close to 40% of them spending between ₹5,000-₹10,000. At the same time, user vulnerability appears to be increasing due to the easy accessibility of offshore platforms, with some respondents reporting instances of fraud, delayed or negligible payouts, and financial losses, suggesting that the current environment has not effectively restricted access to offshore operators. With the contraction of domestic players, users are also moving to formats that lack safeguards, reflected in reports from Telangana indicating that financial losses have risen by nearly 177% post the ban. Behavioural factors such as ease of access, frictionless payments, and community- and social media-driven discovery also appear to be key drivers shaping user migration to offshore platforms.
This points to a very concerning, growing trend which shows behavioural displacement, not behavioural reduction or disengagement. 
The full report unpacks the data, the behavioural patterns, and what they could mean for the next phase of the sector’s evolution.