This year, the Chief Minister’s Trophy in Tamil Nadu marked a historic moment for esports in India. For the first time, it was organised as one of the 38 disciplines in the state-level tournament that has now become a cornerstone of Tamil Nadu’s sports ecosysem. A new generation of athletes, armed with consoles and mousepads, battled it out at their gaming stations for a slice of the Rs 37-crore overall prize pool pie, playing popular titles like EA FC 25, Street Fighter 6, Pokémon Unite, and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).
If that wasn’t enough, state capital Chennai also played host to another major esports tournament, Chennai Esports Global Championship (CEGC), one of the first state-backed esports contests in the country. The first edition, held from November 7 to 16, was organised by Skyesports, a leading gaming organisation, with backing from the Tamil Nadu government. The tournament had a prize pool of Rs 1 crore and featured two titles—BGMI and Counter-Strike 2 (CS2).
A few days earlier, Indian esports reached another milestone. Taking place from October 31 to November 2, at the Yashobhoomi Convention Centre, New Delhi, the inaugural BGMI International Cup (BMIC) 2025 brought together 16 elite teams from India, South Korea, and Japan, competing for a Rs 1-crore prize pool and two coveted qualification slots for the Global Championship 2025.
For years, Indian players have competed in international esports tournaments held abroad. But BMIC 2025 marked a new chapter in the history of esports, bringing the tournament to Indian soil.
Esports, short for electronic sports, is having its moment in India. From top-tier competitions to government recognition, the industry is now evolving from a gaming format with isolated events to an ecosystem of year-round activity. And the figures speak for themselves. As per a report by Bitkraft Ventures, a global investment platform for gaming and interactive entertainment, in association with Redseer Strategy Consultants, the esports market in India, valued at $40 million in 2025, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 26% over the next five years to reach $120 million by FY30, on the back of rising viewership and count of professional esports teams. There were just 22 esports teams in 2023, says the report, which increased to 36 in 2024.
The figure now stands at 40 in 2025, adds the report, titled ‘The Gaming and Interactive Media Opportunity in India’.
Overall, gaming in India is at an inflection point. With a ban on real money games in place, the focus has now shifted to digital games and esports, and with it, the industry is expected to grow at a strong CAGR of 18% from $1.9 million in 2025 to reach 4.4 billion by 2030, the Bitkraft report adds.
As per the report, 18% of the esports industry’s revenue at the moment comes from advertising and media, 59% from sponsorships, 13% from tournament entry fee and 10% from merchandise such as sales of jerseys, caps and collectibles (physical) and NFTs, in-game skins (digital). “Esports in India is largely brand-funded and platform subsidised, but as engagement grows, ads, media rights, and ticket sales are expected to rise,” the report adds.
Rapid expansion
According to Sean Hyunil Sohn, CEO of Krafton India, the game developer behind widely popular titles such as PUBG and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), India today is seeing a convergence of three powerful forces—mobile ubiquity, data accessibility, and a young audience that considers gaming part of mainstream culture. “Smartphones across price segments, ultra-affordable data plans and the shift to virtual entertainment have turned gaming into one of the leading forms of interactive engagement. This democratisation means that competitive gaming is no longer niche—it’s becoming a mass participation sport,” he explains.
Sohn sees the economics slowly rising in tandem with viewership and community engagement. “In terms of prize pools and tournaments, while figures vary, marquee events in India now frequently cross prize pools in the Rs 1-2 crore-plus range. From a viewership standpoint, our BGMI Pro Series 2024 LAN event in Kochi hit over 500,000 concurrent viewers and generated over 11 million hours of watch time,” he adds.
On the infrastructure front, world-class broadcast quality and tournament production has elevated viewer experiences to global standards, says Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, a leading Indian esports company that organises the BGMI Masters Series (BGMS), India’s first televised esports event, in collaboration with Krafton and Star Sports. “We’re already seeing flagship events deliver hundreds of millions of aggregate views. For example, our own IP, BGMS, reached very large cumulative viewership with regular hit eight-figure totals. Prize pools across major tournaments are also increasing with NODWIN Gaming alone hosting tournaments worth nearly Rs 30 crore in prize money year-to-date, reflecting the growing scale and commercial depth of the Indian esports ecosystem. This combination of audience scale, creator ecosystems, and commercialisation is what’s creating a sustainable market dynamic,” he adds.
When it comes to formats, competitions rooted in familiar cultural or sporting themes (for instance, cricket-based esports) tend to connect more quickly with mass audiences because they’re intuitive to follow, says Rajan Navani, founder and CEO of JetSynthesys, a new-age digital entertainment and technology company. “While precise prize pool and viewership figures across all tournaments are still emerging, the trajectory is clear—both are growing as the ecosystem matures. Further, different states in India have now started supporting leagues that help identify esports athletes and showcase them on state-level platforms,” he adds.
Govt push, global appeal
On October 1, a new legislation—The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025—came into force. The landmark reform has been welcomed by the esports industry as a significant step towards formalising India’s fast-growing competitive gaming sector.
The new online gaming bill is a huge step forward because it finally separates esports from real-money gaming, says Shiva Nandy, founder and CEO of Skyesports, and treasurer of the Indian Digital Gaming & Esports Society (IDGES, formerly IDGS), an Indian non-profit industry association. “That clarity alone will attract more investors, brands, and even state governments to support esports the way they support traditional sports. But at the same time, the draft needs flexibility— esports should grow organically through communities and publishers, not by approvals for every title. If we get that balance right, this bill could reshape Indian esports for the next decade,” he adds.
“For players and teams, it means clearer career pathways, potential access to national camps, visas, scholarships and structured league systems; for investors it means de-risked, long-term opportunities to fund IP, infrastructure and talent. We’re already seeing positive ripple effects like several state governments are now including esports in their official state-level tournaments,” says Rathee of NODWIN Gaming.
The timing of the draft rules couldn’t be better. Recently, India got its first Pokémon GO World Champion when Ved “Beelzeboy” Bamb won the championship in Anaheim, USA, and a prize of $20,000. His victory marks a major milestone for the Indian esports community.
Officially established as a sporting discipline in India, a recognition that it received from the Centre in 2022, esports is growing by leaps and bounds. At the Asian Games in Hangzhou, India’s 15-member esports contingent wrapped up its remarkable journey after participating in four of the seven total titles—DOTA 2, League of Legends, EA Sports FC Online and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition.
Around the same time, India won a historic bronze medal in the DOTA 2 open category at the inaugural Commonwealth esports championships 2022 in Birmingham, UK. The Commonwealth esports championships were held alongside the Commonwealth Games 2022 as a demonstration event.
At the recently-concluded 2025 Asian Youth Games in Bahrain, esports was an official medal event for the first time, and India sent two athletes, Tanav Raj and Keshav Uppal, who represented the country in eFootball.
Closer home, this year’s Khelo Indian Youth Games in Bihar included esports as a demonstration event. Several states, including Bihar and Tamil Nadu, have been backing esports in recent times.
Such moves are “extremely beneficial”, as per Nandy of IDGES. “Firstly, it helps to legitimise and destigmatise video games and esports, leading to more players and increased support for our athletes. With this, we will be seeing mainstream brands turn their attention to esports as a way of reaching younger audiences.”
Commenting on the Tamil Nadu government hosting the Chennai Esports Global Championship, with contributions from its state’s sports budget, Nandy adds: “We are hosting this tournament, and it’s not only helping employ local talent for operations but also adding a signature international esports event to India’s calendar. It’s also giving Indian teams exposure to international competition. The benefits won’t just be for the community and esports athletes, but also increased investment into the space, evolving the entire esports ecosystem into a more structured space like traditional sports.”
Players gain athlete-like status with visa facilitation, structured selection pathways and integrity codes, says Rohit Agarwal, founder and director of Alpha Zegus, a new-gen marketing agency specialising in the domains of gaming and lifestyle. “Teams and organisers gain brand safety and multi-season sponsorship confidence. Brands/investors get a sports-like asset class backed by a ~500M-user funnel and national recognition. This is exactly the scaffolding that helped markets like Korea and Germany professionalise esports. India now has the audience to go bigger,” he adds.
The way forward
Despite all the positive development, the esports industry still faces gaps in infrastructure, specialised talent, and consistent rules across states, feels Navani of JetSynthesys. “Many players come from smaller towns, but access to high-performance training and local competitive ecosystems remains limited. Sustainable monetisation models also need development so that teams and athletes can rely less on prize-based income,” he says.
The ideal way forward is coordinated growth—building regional hubs, setting clear integrity and player-welfare standards, and developing revenue streams anchored in media rights, sponsorships and fan engagement, offers Navani. “The next phase must prioritise stability and inclusivity just as much as scale,” he adds.
Agrees Musab Zaman, head of communication at Metaninza, an esports platform. “One of the biggest challenges today is the lack of experienced professionals in the Indian esports ecosystem. There’s still limited understanding both in corporate and policy circles—of how esports actually works as a business.We also need better governance. As the government involves more people from the gaming community, it’s important that these representatives have real experience and a clear vision,” he says.
According to Zaman, the ideal way forward would be to build a national-level esports association to oversee fair growth, invest in grassroots programmes across schools and colleges, and bring in industry veterans to guide strategy and education. “This combination of top-down regulation and bottom-up talent development will ensure long-term sustainability,” he adds.
Esports is set to be one of the fastest-growing slices of India’s $3.8 billion to $9.2 billion gaming trajectory, driven by sponsorships, media rights, and live events, says Agarwal of Alpha Zegus. “Near-term, I expect 15-25% y-o-y growth in brand spends into esports now that the Act de-risks associations. With national-scale events like FFMAX India Cup (Rs 1 crore) and BGMIC (Rs 1 crore) already on the calendar—and clearer rules on what’s permitted vs prohibited—India can absolutely position itself as a global hub for responsible digital gaming—big audiences, strong mobile DNA, and a governance framework built to protect users while promoting competition,” he adds.
