Nitin Chougale, a resident of Navi Mumbai, was always passionate about gaming. The pressures of his job as a merchant navy captain led him to take up gaming as a profession instead. Today, his YouTube channel, Classified YT, which he started in 2015 with gaming videos and gameplays in a range of e-sports, including Battlegrounds Mobile India and PUBG, has about 2.5 million subscribers.
Chougale is part of a trend outlined in a recent report on online gamers in India that says over80% gamers are in it for the money. As per the study conducted by Egamers and Players Welfare Association (EPWA), a membership-based players’ collective organisation, in collaboration with the Centre for Justice through Technology (CJT), Vinayaka Mission’s Law School, Chennai, 83% of the respondents considered gaming as either a primary or secondary source of income, highlighting the paradigm shift towards gaming as a viable professional option.
Of these, 39% considered gaming as a primary source and 44% as a secondary source of income. The study also highlighted how gamers have been able to garner better earnings with improved skill sets.
There are now a diverse array of income sources in the field, ranging from gamer contracts (51%), sponsorships (14%), streaming (5%), content creation (9%) and coaching (21%), the study added.
Platforms like WinZO, an Indian vernacular online gaming place, offers paid partnerships for micro-influencers like Chougale. “Micro-influencers leverage their audience to create monetisation opportunities by providing game reviews, tutorials, strategy studies, and more.
Collectively, they have generated 7 lakh hours of content in various vernacular languages and dialects, such as Konkani, Kutchi, Haryanvi, Konkani, Malvani, and more, garnering 10 billion impressions,” said WinZO founder Paavan Nanda.
For Chougale, the collaboration has given him the much-needed financial stability to pursue his passion full-time as well as to connect with his audiences. “The micro-influencer programme arrived at an opportune moment for creators like me who faced challenges breaking into the mainstream,” he added.
“We believe gaming can be a viable career option for people who have the required skill sets. Globally, it is proven that a lot of people have moved on to become professional poker players and have made money in their careers, including names like Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth,” said Varun Mahna, CEO and founder of Dangal Games, an online skill-based gaming platform.
Fantasy Dangal, a premier fantasy sports platform and a part of Dangal Games, on Thursday announced that it had surpassed one million users.
Another suitable career option around the gaming infrastructure can be live streaming, said Mahna. “There are a lot of people who stream games like poker and fantasy sports to become influencers, and they are also making a very good amount of money from this,” he told FE.
It’s truly exciting to see gamers thriving and earning rewards for their expertise, said Rohit Bansal, founder of Super4, another online gaming app. “Many skilled gamers have consistently demonstrated their ability on our platform to generate income,” he added.
These newer avenues are becoming vast earning areas for gamers, influenced by factors such as skill levels and specific gaming seasons. “Average earnings can encompass a broad spectrum, ranging from as low as Rs 10 to surpassing remarkable figures like Rs 10 lakh, Rs 50 lakh and even Rs 2 crore within a month,” said Sunil Yadav, CEO of PlayerzPot, a popular online gaming platform.
With the rise of e-sports in India, gamers can now showcase their skills by participating in large tournaments with high prize pools, as per Soham Thacker, CEO and founder of Gamerji, an e-sports tournament platform. “This way, a gamer can not only make money but also stand a chance to be recruited by a professional team,” he said.
These team owners are providing best in-class facilities and training to gamers who represent their roster, said Thacker. “E-sports athletes are also becoming stars on social media with significant fan following and gamers are making more and more money. A few years from now, a good gamer in India might be earning on a par with any sports athlete and receive the same fame and recognition,” he added.