Esports is defined as online games of skill that are played in tournaments — where athletes, either in teams or individuals — play against each other to win. Sometimes confused with online casual games and real money games, it was officially recognised as a sport by the Indian government in 2022, placing it on an equal footing with mainstream sports like cricket and football. Esports falls under the Department of Sports under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
These games can range from popular, team-oriented multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs), to single-player first-person shooters, to survival battle royales, to virtual reconstructions of physical sports.
According to a report by Ernst & Young (EY), the Esports industry is expected to grow and reach Rs 11 billion by FY2025 from Rs 3 billion in FY2021.
This industry is already estimated to have over 1,50,000 professional players and is generating viewership from 17 million people across 14 broadcast platforms. This too is expected to grow to 1.5 million professional players, 85 million viewers and 20+ broadcasters by FY2025, the report added.
In India, Esport is driven by mobile gaming as smartphones with good displays and memory cards are easily available at lower price points compared with PCs/laptops and consoles, for which the prices can go into lakhs.
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Rewards of Esports
The Esports industry offers not only entertainment but also lucrative opportunities for gamers.
The earnings of gamers come from various sources, such as prize money from tournaments, salaries from esports organisations, branding deals, media rights for broadcasting the events and advertisement.
According to the HP survey, sponsorships and Esports tournaments have emerged as significant income sources, and in addition to being gamers, nearly 61 percent of respondents said that they want to diversify as influencers and 41 percent said they want to get into Esports management in the future.
Lokmanyu Chaturvedi, an Esports athlete, was part of India’s national team for FIFAe Nations Series 2022 shares his journey. “My journey in gaming started as a kid. When I was in school, I used to play all these first-person shooter games such as Call of Duty…then I started the FIFA series…competitively it all started in college,” he told ThePrint.
Early on, he noticed that there were some tournaments with very small prize pools of Rs 10,000 to 30,000. “I participated in them during my free time on weekends and did really well,” he said.
Now, the price pools for tournaments of popular games, such as Battleground Mobile India (BGMI), can go beyond Rs 2 crore.
Chaturvedi added that for athletes who sign contracts with an Esports organisation, it is a source of regular income, like in any other sport. There are also brand deals that players get. “There are ups and downs. I’m not signed this year, but when I was signed, until last year, at one point, I was earning from three to four different places in terms of salary and working as an independent consultant.”
He added: “Say someone has a regular job…earning about Rs 40-50,000 a month after doing an MBA. Gamers now at the age of 18-19 — keeping the price pool aside — can earn more than Rs 2 lakh a month just from brand deals and tournaments.”
Opportunities in Esports
Chaturvedi, however, added that not everyone has to be a player in the Esports and gaming industry. There are plenty of job opportunities from team managers to social media managers to getting into operations and administration.
According to Shariyari too, while there are people at gaming companies who do not actually game, there are certain job profiles, such as building community or marketing plans, where organisations prefer gamers who can understand their product.
“Since I was interested in gaming and cosplay, these companies noticed me and offered me a job. I didn’t know that there were jobs like these. But the companies want gamers, they want someone who understands their product. It is like for the gamer, by the gamers,” she told ThePrint.
Shariyari herself chose to go the corporate way rather than the gamer/content creator/influencer way, as corporate life is more “comfortable”.
“The amount of work that goes into being a content creator, influencer and professional gamer, it’s no joke. But since people are not aware of it and they look down on it, they’re like you just play games,” she said.
“There are content creators who earn in crores,” she asserted, adding: “But I have also seen many people getting into content, but then returning to their day jobs…it requires a lot of persistence. I started with Rs 16,000 a month, and now after 10 years, my CTC is 10x of that. It is gradual progress, people want that to happen overnight.”
Chaturvedi, too, runs a sports-related business, and in addition is also a caster. “I feel, this is my personal thing, Life hits you. There are so many responsibilities…you tend to look at alternatives that are better for you in terms of being a little more settled.”
He added that, while a lot of athletes continue to compete, they also get involved in streaming and content creation, which is a “little less stressful” as to compete in official tournaments they train for 8-10 hours.
Shefali Johnson, Chief of Staff, NODWIN Gaming, which organises Esports tournaments, told ThePrint that remuneration in Esports is comparable to that in traditional sports like cricket, depending on the talent of the gamer, caster or streamer.
“We can have influencers or casters getting money as good as what a cricketer today gets…Sometime back, we did a tournament and the winner of the Esports tournament went back with a Mercedes car. So, it depends on what level of tournament you are playing and how good athletes are. This is like any other sport…Like in cricket, you have a Virat Kohli, but also several other good players who may be playing at Ranji level,” Johnson added.
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Career, fitness and more
But Esports career is not just about gamers. The EY report had forecast the creation of over 11,000 jobs by FY2025 across game development and events space with specialisation in league management, event management and PR, among others, specifically for Esports.
“A lot of careers have opened up during the transition from online tournaments during Covid-19 to now offline tournaments taking place. And when I say careers, it’s not just Esports players. In a professional team, there are coaches, mental health experts, dietitians and a full-time manager,” said Karan Pathak, Associate Director, Krafton India, a publisher of BGMI.
Pathak highlighted that at the other end, the production side has seen a huge change as well. “A lot of companies have grown and they have hired multiple people to handle league operations…to take care of the broadcast, then there are designers, artists, casters and influencers.”
He explained that for Esports players physical and mental fitness is important “as the fitter they are, the better reflexes they have”.
“Esports as a career lasts about 10 to 12 years because your reflexes gradually slow down…A lot of people think it is just gaming, and anybody can do it. But when you reach the professional levels, your fitness levels, your diet, mental health…these things give you an advantage,” he explained.
He further said: “These gamers are gaming for about six hours a day with price pools of Rs 50 lakh on the line. So they have to be really sharp. So they have to consistently train themselves, consistently eat right, sleep on time etc.”
Acknowledging that there are barriers if one wants to become a professional PC gamer, Pathak pointed out that the equipment can cost as high as Rs 6.5 lakh.
However, the higher cost of the system may push the revival of the cafe ecosystem, where gamers can go and play.
“There was a huge boom in cafes during 2000-2010, post which they gradually died down. The other thing which is happening is that people who win Esports using mobiles, invest that money into PCs so that they can broadcast and become an influencer,” said Pathak.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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