The Curious Case Of Esports And Crypto

Have you heard of GTA, NFS, FIFA.?

- Saptak Bhardhan

If you area gaming enthusiast, you certainly would have. These are the all-time best-selling games in the history of video games. Until the early 2000s, the culture of gaming was not dominant. But fast-forward to 2022, the gaming industry is on an unprecedented rise and India is home to a lot of people who have taken up gaming as a profession. The esports industry has been new to the Indian markets and the inception of the market is directly related to the emergence of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or popularly known as PUBG. Multiplayer games became the point of inception of competitive playing to win cash prizes.. An acronym of Electronic Sports, esports are not the same as online gaming. Esports is a sport, requiring competitive game play, a tournament or league format and use of skill, most often physical skill. They witnessed a massive rise during the COVID era. It allowed the audience, especially the millennials and GenZs to engage, and interact with like-minded people, giving them a sense of community in difficult times. There was a huge spike in the audience base as well as an increase in the number of players, creators, agencies, tournament organizers, etc. who kept experimenting with newer avenues within esports.

According to the FICCI and EY Esports report of 2021, esports will grow at a 46 per cent compounded annual growth rate over the next four years, and set to generate over INR300 million worth of revenue by the year 2025. Subsequently, the Indian esports industry revenue is projected to more than quadruple to INR11 billion by the same year.

Also, the games popularised by esports tournaments will generate over INR14 billion in in-app purchase revenue by the year 2025.