The Year of BGMI? 2021, Indian Esports' Biggest Year Yet
Major developments in Indian esports witnessed this year.
Cover-Credits:
AFK Gaming
It has been a great year for esports globally as the world slowly returned to normalcy and tournament organizers shifted to LAN events with or without live audiences. We witnessed the crowning of the first-ever Valorant world champions, the record-breaking return of the CS:GO Major after more than two years, The International 2021 raising the stakes with a total prize pool of $40,018,195 USD, Riot Games hosting the Horizon Cup 2021 which was the biggest Wild Rift esports event so far, Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore setting a new esports viewership peak at 5.4M concurrent viewers, and a lot more across various titles.
For the Indian esports and gaming industry, it has been quite an eventful year for both PC and Mobile titles within the country as well. Starting with the highly anticipated release of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) which took the entire mobile gaming community by storm, followed by Riot Games introducing the Valorant Conquerors Championship through which an Indian team qualified to compete in an international competition for the first time ever, the Indian gaming industry witnessed quite a boom this year.
In fact, the growth has been so stupendous that India has been named as the fastest growing video games market across both PC and Mobile in Asia by Niko Partners. This is just one of many such developments that Indian esports witnessed in 2021.
Krafton Releases Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI)
The release of BGMI within the country was the biggest esports/gaming development that India witnessed in 2021. The India exclusive mobile battle royale by Krafton, after months of build-up and speculation, was released for Android on 2nd July 2021, followed by a delayed release for iOS on 18th August 2021.
As expected, BGMI took the Indian mobile gaming community by storm. Even before its release, the game had successfully managed to acquire 20M pre-registrations in a span of just 17 days on the Google Play Store.
Since its release, BGMI has successfully achieved more than 50 million downloads, unlocking the milestone on 5th August, just a month after the game’s official launch. The user statistics released by Krafton on 12th July revealed that the game was achieving a maximum of 16 million daily active users along with a peak of 2.4 million concurrent users.
Krafton has rolled out regular updates and regional events for BGMI, while also putting up an active fight against hackers and cheaters that had started plaguing the game a few months after the game’s release. This was brought to light after content creators and professional players spoke out about the issue publicly.
BGMI ended up winning the ‘Best Game’ award on Google Play’s Best of 2021 awards. Along with improving the game, the developers were quick to step into the competitive side of things as well. Within a week of the game’s official release, Krafton announced the first official competitive BGMI tournament - The Launch Party. It featured a total prize pool of INR 6,00,000 ($8,042 USD) where 18 popular Indian content creators were set to participate in it.
The event received a solid response from the community. Following this, Krafton announced the Battlegrounds Mobile India Series (BGIS) 2021 featuring a massive INR 1 Crore ($134.2K) prize pool. The open tournament was a combination of both a grassroots level event and a podium for well-established teams. This was a huge step forward by Krafton that bolstered the Indian mobile esports ecosystem signalling a bigger esports ecosystem.
Many other tournament organizers like Skyesports, The Esports Club, Red Bull, Villager Esports, and more started hosting BGMI tournaments with about 50 top-tier competitions already having been conducted in 2021 so far.
A few notable BGMI tournaments that took place this year include,
Note: Only BGMI tournaments with total prize pool equal to or more than INR 5 Lakhs have been included. Data via Liquipedia.
The release of BGMI may have also had a larger impact on the Indian esports industry. The game has also paved a pathway for esports titles to tie into tournament circuits for banned games. Currently, the winner of BGIS 2021 is set to receive a slot in PMGC 2021: Grand Finals.
Singapore-based developer ACTOZ SG has released ‘Clash of Titans’ (CoT) in India. The game is currently being marketed as India's first-ever MOBA game for mobile devices. The game has an opportunity to capture the uncontested Indian mobile MOBA market as both League of Legends: Wild Rift (WR) and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) are not currently available in the country.
Interestingly, the game seems to be quite similar to the popular MOBA title, Arena of Valor (AoV). The ‘Titans’ in the promotional poster of the game are similar to heroes found in AoV, in addition to the skins and in-game map. Perhaps CoT could also tie into the esports circuit of AoV in 2022.
India Reportedly Becomes Fastest-Growing Games Market in Asia
India has experienced rapid growth across both Mobile and PC gaming markets in 2021, presumably thanks to the release of BGMI. Free Fire continues to do exceptionally well, there is Valorant’s steady growth along with other valuable contributions being made by various titles, all collectively contributing significantly to the growth of the industry.
According to the Asian video games and esports market research firm - Niko Partners and Daniel Ahmad (Senior Analyst at the firm), the revenue generated by Indian gaming markets in 2021 is projected to reach $534.1 Million, witnessing a Year over Year (YoY) growth of 31.79%. At a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 29.8%, this is expected to reach the $1.5 Billion mark by the year 2025.
Additionally, India’s PC and Mobile gaming audience is expected to reach about 340M by the end of the year, a 21.97% YoY growth. This audience is further forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 13.7% to reach 529 Million by 2025.
India has already established itself as the second-largest games market in the world in terms of players, right behind China, becoming the fastest growing market in Asia-10* in terms of both revenue and games. In fact, India’s ARPU (Average Revenue per User) is expected to grow at the fastest rate through to 2025, despite it having the lowest ARPU in Asia-10 at the moment.
India’s fast growth has been contributed to the following reasons,
Low cost of 4G data.
The proliferation of affordable smartphones.
An abundance of high-quality free-to-play titles.
*Asia-10 countries include Chinese Taipei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Indian PC esports goes international
The rise of Valorant in the country has empowered a thriving esports and streaming community outside the realm of mobile esports. Riot Games’ tactical first-person shooter (FPS) has turned things around drastically for PC esports and content creation within India, despite the game only being around for a little more than a year.
Valorant has seemingly single-handedly revived PC gaming in India bolstering competitive gaming, streaming, and content creation. There have been a lot of local Valorant tournaments that Indian and South Asian teams have participated in, and they have accrued some amazing concurrent viewership numbers.
Over the last year, teams developed a significant fan base which has consequently led to a boost in the level of competition and quality of tournaments. Viewership also skyrocketed over the course of the year. The high stakes grand finals of Valorant Conquerors Championship (VCC) drew a peak viewership of 55,719 concurrent viewers, which is significantly higher than the numbers for past Indian PC esports tournaments for titles like CS:GO and Dota 2.
Riot Games is paving the way for South Asian teams through its official Valorant Champions Tour circuit through the introduction of the Valorant Conquerors Championship (VCC). These progressive steps definitely bode well for PC esports enthusiasts within the country.
Indian esports teams and players have contributed significantly to boost interest and viewership in Valorant. With its win at the VCC, Global Esports qualified for the Valorant Champions Tour: Asia Pacific Last Chance Qualifier and became the first Indian team to compete in Riot’s official circuit. The team and its star player Ganesh "SkRossi" Gangadhar pushed Indian Valorant to new heights winning a series and going toe-to-toe against some of the best in Asia, ensuring a promising future for Indian Valorant.
AFK Gaming
It wasn’t just the male roster that elevated Indian Valorant. Velocity Asteria, a female Valorant esports team featuring several Indian players successfully qualified for the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Game Changers SEA Elite tournament.
Similar to Global Esports' run, Velocity Asteria also put up a strong performance before being eliminated from the tournament. With the expansion of the Valorant Game Changers series of events, the teams are expected to have more opportunities to fly the Indian banner at official Valorant events.
Indian esports organizations sign international rosters and players
Indian organizations have not only grown in strength within the country but are also expanding their horizons as a few organizations have also picked international teams or signed foreign players to bolster their Indian rosters. This denotes a healthy environment for esports businesses to establish their headquarters within the country.
Stalwart Esports after a controversial exit from the Pakistani region in August 2021, went on to successfully enter the Mongolian region a few months later in September 2021. It had signed the Mongolian PUBG Mobile team Astra Academy. At the time of signing the lineup, this acquisition had made these players the highest-paid in PUBG Mobile across the entire South Asian region (excluding Indian BGMI players), according to the organization.
Indian esports organization Entity Gaming, almost two years after last competing in Dota 2, announced its expansion into Europe with the signing of the EU DPC Division 2 team ‘Creepwave’ in November.
Foreign nationals are also being recruited by Indian esports organizations. Enigma Gaming’s captain Shakir “hikkA“ Razak is a Sri Lankan national who is one of the founding members of its Valorant team and the only player to still remain a part of it since the beginning. Even its latest recruit, Lukas “yb” Gröning, is a German national who is now part of its Valorant team as the team's head coach.
Even Global Esports, before heading into its first-ever international Valorant tournament - Valorant Champions Tour 2021: Asia Pacific Last Chance Qualifier, had temporarily signed North American Valorant player Josh "shinobi" Abastado as its coach to give them a helping hand in its preparations.
Velocity Gaming’s female Valorant division - VLT Asteria is also a mixed roster featuring international players. The team currently comprises three Indian players - Saloni "Meow16k" Pawar, Neha "CaspeR" Sottany, Akanksha aka "Muffinloop"; one Pakistani player - Iqra “BriTSy” khan; and an Australian player - Shreya "shreyuwu" Prasad.
Indian esports viewership and overall interest in the industry have shown consistent growth in 2021. While the return of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) will certainly dominate the highlights of the year, the importance of Valorant’s emergence as the go-to PC esports title for Indian esports viewers cannot be understated. India was previously only viewed as a destination for mobile esports tournaments, but that perception might change, with tournament organizers like Nodwin Gaming, Skyesports, and The Esports Club hosting Valorant events that draw in thousands of viewers on average.
2022 will be a year where BGMI may face fierce competition from the likes of Free Fire, COD Mobile, Apex Legends mobile, and Krafton’s own PUBG: New State. It will be interesting to see if it can maintain its position in the Indian market despite the abundance of mobile Battle Royale games within the country.
It will also be interesting to see how the average Indian mobile esports player reacts to Clash of Titans. In the past, India has only had negligible viewership when it comes to MOBA esports. So far, the initial reception to the game seems rather lukewarm with only 50K+ installs at the end of December 2021. Can Actoz Singapore turn things around?
With the winners of BGIS 2021 getting a direct invite to the grand finals of PUBG Mobile Global Championships 2021, two South Asian Valorant teams getting a chance to compete in VCT 2022: APAC LCQ, Indian teams preparing for Free Fire World Series 2022, and other such exciting news, 2022 is already shaping up to be another great year for Indian esports.
Note:
Nodwin Gaming is a client of and an investor at AFK Gaming
The Esports Club is a client of AFK Gaming
