Esports can transform the Indian gaming industry

The current pandemic has helped in shifting the focus of esports to online. The overall growth of the esports industry has been phenomenal in 2020. During the pandemic, esports got much-needed exposure and it seems that it is slowly heading towards the mainstream. The current stats show we have 365 million Indian gamers across mobile, PC, and console & around 85% of which comprises mobile gamers.

According to the recently released EY FICCI 2021 report, the online gaming segment grew 18% in 2020 to reach INR 77 billion as online gamers grew 20% from 300 million in 2019 to 360 million in 2020. Gaming as space is becoming more active than ever and this gives new opportunities to users to engage.

We spoke to Tarun Gupta, Founder, Ultimate Battle, to understand the Indian gaming dynamics.

Rise of esports

Esports is still under nascent stages in India but we’re witnessing a steady growth in terms of events being organized and acceptance of esports by the masses. The viewership of esports in India has grown over 17 million as per industry estimates.

With entire populations staying home, online viewership has skyrocketed. While the world is talking about recession and reduction, we are looking at multiple, very high, double-digit growth rates, and I’m sure most esports players and evangelists will agree that this is our time in the sun. All esports companies in India are currently working overtime to envision new and innovative strategies that will work best with the current scenario.

While professionals from other sectors worry about jobs and incomes during a health-economic crisis like this, esports continues to be lucrative for professional players who are stars in their own right. They earn well from online esports tournaments, events, live streaming because of their skills, nimbleness, and ability to quickly adapt and conquer the advanced levels of the games they play.

Esports has the potential to expand and establish itself as a robust industry itself because of the vast employment opportunities it also offers to coders, developers, software engineers, specialist gamers, game designers, casters, and IT specialists.

Future trends in the gaming ecosystem

I personally look forward to VR gaming which I think can be a game-changer in terms of how gaming is perceived as on date. It can be compared to the introduction of augmented reality games likes Pokemon or new gaming modes like battle royale, which shaped the gaming experience in a whole new way.

Tarun Gupta, Founder, Ultimate Battle

In terms of technology, Cloud Gaming can bring about a big change in terms of gaming accessibility on Personal Computers (PC). Whereby having top-notch hardware to play a game may not be necessary and cloud gaming platforms may take care of that. This will help in enhancing the reach of online gaming.

Some of the other key trends & technologies that will drive the Indian esports industry in 2021 are

● Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning

● Data Analytics

● Content Creation

The biggest revenue churner for the new age millennials

Around 60% of Indian gamers are below the age of 25. While gaming acts as a great outlet for millennials in the form of entertainment it has already become a profession for many.

Esports today is already being looked upon as a career. We can see a number of Indian Esports teams who are participating in various prize tournaments and making a decent win.  In addition to tournaments, monetizing via streaming on YouTube is big business. Esports is a new industry, just like sports, a gamer can look at multiple avenues to turn their passion into professional. Some of the avenues can be esports athlete, content creation, casting, analyst, coach, Esports Arena, Academies, Team owner, event organizer, and so on.