The rise and rise of Esports in India
In the autumn of 1972, a PhD student named Bruce Baumgart earned himself a year’s subscription to Rolling Stone magazine and a few cans of beer. It was the prize money for the first-ever esports competition held in the Stanford University AI laboratory. Back when most people were busy playing poker and rummy games in cardrooms and cafes, a small group of people kickstarted a concept that has today become a behemoth in the entertainment industry.
If you are fascinated by online video games, handle your gamepad extremely well, or even know how to play rummy like a pro, there might be an esports platform you would be interested in. From a lab at Stanford University to the global audience, the esports evolution has been a quintessential ‘niche to mainstream’ journey.
This rise to ascendancy is true in the case of Indian esports as well.
Finding the Foothold
Organised competitive video gaming was a deviation from the prevailing norm that gaming was about being entertained in isolation. Early esports in India were the same as in the rest of the world. The influx of the internet at the turn of the century meant that gamers could play competitively in LAN gaming cafes. These competitions were not formally organised but helped in the growth of the early esports talent in the country.
Soon, Indian gamers were participating in international esports tourneys. The Indian gamers participating in the $500,000 Major League Gaming World Finals in Louisiana, the USA, in 2015 included Ganesh Meenavalli, a 13-year-old Hyderabad boy!
Fast forward a few years to 2017-18, and esports had graduated from neighbourhood cybercafes to a major organised sport. In 2018, India even earned its first esports medal in the Jakarta Asian Games. Tirth Mehta clinched his bronze in Hearthstone, an online collectable card game. Although this medal in the trial event didn’t add up to India’s medal tally, it paved the way for future esports athletes.
In 2017, esports startup, eGamers Arena gained exclusive rights to host the national qualifiers of the World Cyber Arena. At that time, it was the largest gaming championship in the world and had a $28 million jackpot. Popular games played at this esports event included DOTA2, Counter-Strike and Overwatch.
Esports prize money in 2016 was estimated to be around $93 million globally. The revenue from esports was sharply increasing, from $400 million in 2015 to $500 million in 2016. Multiple esports tournaments were being held, notable among them being DewArena, Flipkart Gaming, IeSC, ESL and ROG Masters. Although the cumulative Indian esports prize pool in 2016 was only ₹77 lakhs, the dawn of esports popularity in India was there for all to see.
The More Recent Growth
By 2020, big expectations from Indian esports were building up. Mobile gaming had already picked up, which presented a big opportunity for Indian esports startups. The Paytm First Games' first esports tournament in April 2020 notched more than 12,000 registrations and around 70,000 viewers.
COVID-19 lockdown meant that new gamers were finding out how to play rummy and poker to pass their time. It also saw a sudden surge in esports games like DOTA, FIFA and Fortnite. The number of gamers in India increased from 20 million in 2010 to over 300 million in 2019. Also in 2019, Bhubaneswar hosted the FIFA U-19 qualifier esports tournament. By this time, events like the All India Open Esports League, NSG Championship, PUBG Mobile India Series, The Tekken World Tour, ESL, etc., had become regular features in the Indian esports calendar.
From Indian gamers trying their skills in overseas tourneys, India was now a hot destination for local as well as overseas gamers. Meanwhile, RummyCulture entered the Guinness World Record with the most participated rummy games tournament, showing that the competitive spirit had engulfed esports as well as the real money games industry.
Mainstream Entertainment
Several of the primetime esports events started during the last decade have held their ground as the genre grew in India. The ESL India Premiership continues to draw gamers with action-packed competitions around games like Clash Royale and CS: GO. Mumbai hosts the ESL One Dota2 event, which gathers international attention and has a sizeable prize pool.
Talking of the prize pool, the highly anticipated Skyesports Championship had a total prize pool of ₹55 lakhs. Clash of Clans, BGMI and Valorant are among the games featured in this tournament. The prize pool alone shows the progress of esports in India, from a total annual pool of ₹77 lakhs to ₹55 lakhs in one event alone!
A Sustained Presence
Esports events present a golden opportunity for game developers who want to establish their game titles as tournament favourites. Many of these games are now enticing participation from tier 2 and 3 towns through innovative marketing and features like voice chat. For the organisers, esports events offer a promising revenue flow through participation, brand integration, sponsorships, etc. For Indian gamers, esports should continue to be a vibrant entertainment and gameplay opportunity.
