Here’s How PUBG Gamers in India Are Spending Time During Lockdown

The Indian gaming industry is valued at a whopping Rs 62 billion.

Gaming in India has picked up ever since the lockdown came into effect. 

(Photo: The Quint/Shruti Mathur)

Edited By: Prashant Chauhan
Senior Multimedia Producer

A decade ago, nobody could have estimated how big the gaming industry will become. Its global turnover is in billions right now and it’s growing at a geometric rate.

In India itself, the gaming industry is valued at a whopping Rs 62 billion which is predicted to grow up to over Rs 250 billion by 2025.

This lucrative sector has attracted a lot of gamers over the years who have not only built a community of their own online but today have a huge number of followers on social media platforms.

The lockdown in India has seen a lot of people getting hooked to playing games to kill time. Not only that, but it has also been a parade for the professional gaming community who create gaming content.

We at The Quint caught up with some of these gamers to find out how the lockdown has been for them and whether they have seen any kind of growth on their channels in terms of engagement and revenue.

We also talk about how much time the gamers spend streaming live on their platforms and whether they had to make any sacrifices to becomes professional gamers.

To understand the aspect of revenue growth we also spoke with Yash Pariani, Director at the Indian Gaming League.

As viewership has seen drastic growth, the revenue growth has been found to be 150 percent, it’s also expected that more firms will begin to look into investments into Esports, its YoY (Year-on-Year) growth in terms of viewerships are soon to overtake if they haven’t already their sports counterparts, which would make Esport sponsorships a more lucrative option in terms of an outreach for the firms that are looking to promote their products. 

Yash Pariani, Director, Indian Gaming League.

When asked which games were being played the most, Yash said that “Ludo has one of the highest growth rates since the lockdown began, as well as the multiplayer format across our main games which include PUBG Squads, Call of Duty mobile – the Team Death Match format.”

We also spoke with Akshat Rathee, who is the Managing Director & Founder at Nodwin Gaming. He said that the percentage of growth has been in three figures and more people are consuming gaming content in India.