Esports: From BGMI To Counter-Strike, DOTA to Free Fire, Asia’s Online Gaming Content Creators On A Roll with India Among Industry Leaders
Esports is fast becoming a career option for youngsters in India. And it is now a medal sport in the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Gone are the days when youngsters were admonished for wasting hours e-gaming before a console, PC or mobile. Today, with increasing smartphone penetration and digitisation across India, the tables have turned and esports has become a much vied-for lucrative profession for both the urban and rural youth. And why not? It is finally putting them on the road to glittering name, fame and money.
Esports is now a medal sports at the Asian Games and has a great future at the Olympics. India won a bronze medal at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta. Esports was a demonstration event in Indonesia but in the 2022 Games in Hangzhou, China, esports will have 24 medals up for grabs in eight different games.
Games like FIFA (made by EA SPORTS), an Asian Games version of PUBG Mobile and Arena of Valor, Dota 2, League of Legends, Dream Three Kingdoms 2, HearthStone and Street Fighter V will each offer three medals. These will count towards the final standings in the Games. India, with several experts in this art of sports, will be a serious medal contender.
Esports is a serious career option as well. India is estimated to have about 150,000 players and around 60,000 esports teams. India’s esports industry is set to quadruple in size to Rs 1,100 crore by 2025 from Rs 250 crore at present—clocking a compounded annual growth rate of 46%, according to an EY report.
Major platform owners like MPL, Paytm First Games and Nazara are increasingly turning their attention towards esports as the legalities and regulations are relatively favourable than games that involve stakes and where the luck element is more predominant that skill.