India’s digital entertainment landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift, with interactive media rapidly emerging as the fastest-growing segment, according to a pivotal report by Redseer Strategy Consultants. This transformative trend signals a move by Indian consumers away from passive viewing towards high-engagement, habit-driven digital experiences.
The study projects that India’s interactive media industry is on a trajectory to explode from its current size, potentially growing nearly seven times to reach a massive $3.1–$3.4 billion by the fiscal year 2030 (FY30). This exponential growth is being fueled by new, engaging formats, with micro-dramas standing out as the undisputed leader.
Interactive media encompasses dynamic formats such as micro-dramas, social discovery platforms, astro and devotional technology, new-age audio, and AI-enabled content. These categories are collectively expanding far quicker than traditional digital media.
- J-Curve Growth: Redseer’s analysis highlights that the micro-drama category is following a steep J-curve growth pattern, mirroring a hyper-growth phase previously seen in China. This surge is driven by strong genre demand and high rates of repeat viewing behaviour among users.
- Substituting Traditional Content: Crucially, micro-dramas are increasingly substituting longer-form entertainment and even saturating short-form video, particularly during brief breaks and late evenings. This substitution effect underscores a deep change in consumer attention and content preference for short, high-dopamine narratives.
The shift in content is accompanied by a change in the consumer profile. New cohorts from non-metro and regional markets are driving this adoption wave, forming consumption habits around distinct time-of-day patterns.
The acceleration across these interactive media categories is significantly supported by AI-led personalization. AI is playing a critical role in improving content discovery and increasing the average session depth, thereby enhancing the overall user experience and paving the way for differentiated formats as traditional short-form video plateaus.
While the growth outlook is robust, the report identifies key challenges, notably in monetization. Platforms face hurdles from user churn triggered by payment friction and an over-dependence on UPI autopay. This pressure is forcing players to rethink pricing and value propositions, as monetization behaviour varies sharply across different income cohorts, indicating a “one-size-fits-all” pricing model will limit long-term growth.
For marketers, platforms, and investors, the report maps clear white spaces for the next wave of growth:
- Regional Markets: Tapping into the non-metro and regional user base.
- Emerging Cohorts: Designing products for new user segments.
- New Creator-Infrastructure Models: Investing in the ecosystem that powers content creation.
Over the next 24–36 months, investors will closely scrutinize scalability, retention economics, and profitability drivers to distinguish the market leaders. This Redseer report firmly establishes interactive media not as a temporary trend, but as the future mechanism for how India will discover, consume, and pay for digital entertainment.
Key Highlights:
- Market Growth Forecast: India’s interactive media market is projected to reach $3.1–$3.4 billion by FY30, an almost sevenfold increase from FY25, signaling a decisive inflection point in digital entertainment.
- Micro-Dramas as Key Driver: Micro-dramas are the fastest-growing format, following a J-curve similar to China, and are actively substituting traditional and long-form content, driven by high demand and repeat viewing.
- Shifting Consumer Base: The surge is fueled by new user cohorts, especially from non-metro and regional markets, with AI-led personalization accelerating content discovery and session depth.
- Monetization Challenges: Platforms face pressure from payment friction (reliance on UPI autopay) and varying user willingness to pay, which demands innovative and flexible pricing strategies to ensure long-term, scalable growth.