ABSTRACT

The gaming industry is one of the fastest expanding not just internationally, but also in India.
While the worldwide gaming business is worth around $220 billion, India's gaming sector is
worth approximately $2.7 billion, and the impact of esports is not as significant as it might be.
Esports is the next generation of gaming. Esports offers numerous opportunities and threats to
India, which is a relatively young country. This article outlines basic facts about the Indian
gaming industry, as well as the challenges linked with esports in India, and proposed solutions to
those problems.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Gaming is described as the act of playing electronic games using a variety of devices such as
computers, cellphones, and consoles. High-speed internet connections are becoming more
common, particularly in emerging nations, making online gaming more accessible in recent
years. The gaming market is expanding in tandem with rising per capita income, increased
interest, and an increase in the number of dual-income households, contributing to the worldwide
market's development. With the increased use of smartphones and consoles, as well as cloud
adoption, the industry has a great potential for future growth. The gaming market is divided into
two sections: gaming type (console, tablet, smartphone, downloaded/box PC, and browser PC)
and geography.
The Indian esports sector is largely decentralized and undocumented, leaving the word
susceptible to several meanings. Unlike online gaming, esports is defined by online skill games
performed in tournaments - various teams and people competing against each other to win the
championship / league / title, similar to physical sports. Games that are digital/virtual versions of
conventional sports are also included in esports.
Other sports benefit from regulated sports calendars and proven track records, whereas esports
events do not.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The methodology was to go ahead and gather information related to Indian gaming industry,
published by many reliable sources, and then with careful observation come up with relevant
information. This descriptive research comprised of both qualitative and quantitative findings,
making the research mixed sample-based research. For this research, empirical data and findings
of academicians, industry reports along with articles on current situation was looked upon.

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INTRODUCTION
Gaming has always been an integral part of human cultures since ancient times, considered to be
one of the best ways of social interaction. With time, the idea behind gaming, its format, and
modes have changed. And with the advancement of technology and the introduction of the
internet, one such big change came in the 1980s with the introduction of online gaming. Now,
games are divided into many categories like first-person shooter (FPS), racing, real-time strategy
(RTS), action and adventure, cards, a battle arena, and many more.
With time, the competitiveness associated with gaming increased, so much so that for some
categories of games like real-time strategy (RTS) and first-person shooter (FPS), competitions
were held, and that too on big levels, first at the national level and then international level. A
term got coined while competitive gaming was getting popular, is “E-sports”. Any game that was
played in real-time, professionally, organized, and in front of a large audience is called esports.

RISE OF E-SPORTS
With the increasing popularity of online real-time gaming which is supposed to be superior to
any mode of the game, events organized esports tournaments increased in number and gained a
lot of popularity among various stakeholders, who in various ways benefit from these events and
tournaments.
Talking about the current scenario, we can divide the stakeholders involved in esports into two
major categories, primary and secondary.
Primary stakeholders are those who are directly associated with games and organized esports
events. They include the following:
1. Developers are the real makers of the games who look after tasks like programming,
designing, and testing. Some of the best game-developing organizations are The Nine
Hertz and Nintendo.
2. Publishers, who bring in resources for developers to build a game. Some famous
publishers are Epic Games and Tencent Gaming.
3. Leagues are one of the best ways for publishers to increase the popularity of their games
as they conduct events revolving around the games. In the case of esports, Electronic
Sports League (ESL) and ELeague are one the most celebrated leagues.
4. Players are the stakeholders who interact with games the most and are supposed to be the
final reviewers of the game.
5. Streaming Platforms and Broadcasters are the services that allow players and leagues
to reach their desired audiences. YouTube Gaming, Twitch, and Facebook Gaming are
some streaming platforms and ESPN is a broadcaster.
6. Fans are the most important stakeholders who play a game and view or attend the esports
events, buy merchandise and promote esports.

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Secondary stakeholders are those who don’t affect esports but bring value both to themselves and
to esports. They include the following:
1. Sponsors, who help stakeholders like players and leagues with the cost involved in
staging esports events. Red bull is one of the biggest esports sponsors.
2. Complimentary Businesses like the merchandisers who act as walking advertisements
for games, tournaments, and sponsors.

INDIAN GAMING INDUSTRY

The status of the Indian gaming industry is a mix of positive results in recent times and negative
notions around it. The Indian gaming industry is big, with a market value of around $2.7 billion,
which is somewhere near the market value of Bollywood. But compared to the global gaming
market value of $220 billion, it is just 1.22% of it. As India is a mobile-first economy, most of
the revenue generated by the Indian gaming industry comes from mobile devices, primarily for
casual gaming and fantasy gaming. A Study by KPMG revealed the device penetration for
gaming in India. 94% of gamers play games on mobile phones, 9% play games on PCs, and just
4% on consoles.

Indian Online Gaming Market

1%
18% Casual Gaming
Real Money Gam-
44% ing
Online Fantasy
Sports
37% E-sports

Source: KPMG

Dream11, an Indian gaming startup, got the status of a unicorn in 2019. Dream11 is an example
of a platform for casual and fantasy gaming. While statistics like this portray India’s growth in
gaming, it does not help the Indian e-sports industry. Indian esports teams and companies are
still struggling to find their name at the world’s top and one main reason for that is representation
by Indian esports teams on a global level, which is very little to none.

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CHALLENGES WITH INDIAN ESPORTS
For a long time, India has proved to take on worldwide trends while also excelling at it. But this
is not the case with Indian esports organizations. There are very few esports organizations like
Team Brutality, Global Esports, and new ones like Team SOUL, who aspire to represent India on
the world stage.
Now, why is it important for Indian esports teams to represent India on a global level and more
importantly to excel at it? It is because the popularity of any form of sports in a country is based
upon the performance of the team representing that country. Take the example of the Indian
cricket team that won the cricket world cup in 1983. It led to the rising popularity of sports in
India and more importantly flow of funds towards it. Now, in any world cup tournament, India is
always considered to be one of the favorites.

Now, there are many underlying reasons why India, even after so much potential, cannot rise to
the stage of global esports:
1. The prime reason why individuals don’t take esports as a prospective career is the various
social stigmas associated with gaming and esports, especially among parents who are the
source of the first set of hardware someone has. Parents believe that playing esports
beyond a certain limit is not good for their children as it promotes violence, makes them
lazy, and affects eyesight.
India had an annual esports viewership of 17 million in 2021 which suggests that in India,
esports is seen more as a source of entertainment.
But if we look at the situation from outside India, people are working full-time in the esports
industry at various levels, playing competitive, streaming, and working as a commentator, and
analyst. Some esports personalities worth mentioning are a 16-year-old gamer Kyle “Bugha”
Giersdorf, who earned $3 million from a solo Fortnite tournament, and a professional gamer
turned streamer Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek, who after having a successful professional gaming
career turned into a full-time streamer.
2. India is a mobile-first economy. So, while a major part of the world is balanced between
PC-based esports and smartphone-based gaming, the majority of Indians incline
toward smartphone-based gaming.
One such instance was the launch of the game PUBG-mobile in late 2018, which boosted the
Indian gaming industry’s growth. Before the game got banned, India was one of the biggest
contributors to the game’s global growth. But the fact is that for any nation to lead in the esports
world, they have to compete on multiple platforms, not just smartphones but PCs too.

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 3. One more big reason why Indians chose not to spend on high-end gaming laptops or PCs
is the setup cost. Compared to countries like USA and China, the average price of
gaming hardware can be 30%-40% more. It is high taxes and customs duties in India that
are responsible for this costly setup.
A common trend among Indian esports enthusiasts is that even if they opt for gaming hardware,
they look for the cheapest options. For example, gaming laptops under Rs. 1 lakh is one very
common query searched by individuals looking for personal systems.
We can compare Indian esports with the rest of the world to reach a common consensus that it is
nowhere near the top levels of esports. For instance, let’s take the example of a South American
country Brazil. It has a gaming market of $2.3 billion, which is comparable to India’s. But
organizations like Made In Brazil (MIBR), Luminosity Gaming, PaiN Gaming and Furia eSports
are representing Brazil on the global platform of esports in games like Counter-Strike: Global
Offensive, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Apex Legends, and Valorant.

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
There are some ways by which the above-mentioned challenges can be overcome. Some methods
are based on technological intervention whereas some do not require technology much.
1. The concept of cloud gaming is not new to this world. But integrating it with esports can
help esports enthusiasts worry less about gaming hardware and focus more on building
skills and trying out various games to know where their interest lies.
There are some Indian startups like The Gaming Project who are giving cloud gaming
services with some esports games like Apex Legends, CS: GO, and Dota 2.

2. Building awareness among the community, irrespective of age brackets, can help
increase the popularity and reach of esports. This can be done by conducting esports
events locally and national level.
We have camps and national-level tournaments for traditional sports like the Ranji trophy
and IPL for cricket, which help low-level cricketers get exposure and BCCI spot talent
early on in their careers.
Similarly, in esports, these types of national-level leagues will help lower-level players to
get recognized and make people realize potential opportunities in esports.

3. To overcome the problem of social stigma related to gaming and esports, both traditional
and digital mediums should be used to spread correct information related to esports,
scientifically proven health benefits from esports, future career growth opportunities and
roles involved in esports and the significant growth of the industry.

4. Organizations like STPI, which are backed by the Indian government, should help esports
event organizing startups. For example, for their annual event Cohort where they look to
conduct gaming and esports events across colleges, they can tie up with startups that
specialize in those services.

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CONCLUSION
The entertainment sector is booming, and so is the gaming sector. Much of the growth in the
entertainment sector is due to the gaming sector. The gaming sector grew exponentially in the
pandemic era, and even in the post-pandemic world, its popularity is growing. With one of the
largest young populations in the world and growing digital literacy, India has the potential to
lead in the gaming industry. One way to achieve it is to have a presence in the esports industry,
which can act as a catalyst for the Indian gaming industry.
There are many hurdles to overcome when we talk about Indian esports, and among those are
social stigmas associated with esports, high hardware setup cost and inclination towards mobile-
based softcore gaming. Building awareness, providing aid to gaming and esports startups and
tackling high prices can prove to be effective measures to help the Indian esports industry grow
and compete with the rest of the world.

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