Modi meeting gaming, esports stalwarts, trying hand at virtual reality, mobile games a shot in arm for industry

Some of India’s top gaming influencers recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the man wielding the most influence in the world’s most populous country. The meeting saw roundtable conversations about the issues facing the esports and gaming industry and ended with the 73-year-old Modi trying his hand at VR (virtual reality) and mobile games.

The seven Indian gamers who were invited to meet the Prime Minister are some of the most popular names in the esports and gaming industry. Take, for example, Naman Mathur, who goes by his gaming name of Mortal. With 5.3 million followers on Instagram, besides seven million subscribers on YouTube, his social media fame puts into shade that of ‘mainstream’ athletes like India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin (who has 4.7 million Instagram followers and 14 lakh subscribers on YouTube) or PV Sindhu, who has 3.7 million followers on Instagram. Mortal’s YouTube videos have aggregated over 131 crore views, most of them from Gen-Z viewers.

When David Beckham visited India last year, Mortal was one of those who got an audience with the superstar, as he not only chatted about football but also got to explain to the former England football captain why he should try Mumbai’s vada pav.

Mortal was one of the first big superstars in the Indian esports ecosystem, finding viral fame in 2018 with a YouTube video titled “Every PUBG player will watch this ending”, which has 20 million views so far.

Mortal made his name in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile. When PUBG Mobile was banned in India, a new variant Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) took its place. BGMI is said to have over 100 million users in the country.

Mortal, like many other OG (original gangster) stars of that period, has gone on to become one of the biggest content creators on social media, commanding top dollar for link-ups with mainstream brands. Just like former cricketers find gigs as analysts and commentators, esports athletes earn lakhs of rupees on a monthly basis as “content creators” by streaming their games on platforms.

“The top esports players in India could make anywhere between $4,000 to $15,000 (approx. Rs 3 lakh to Rs 12 lakh) a month. But of course, there’s a huge income disparity in the industry, where someone finishing 10th in an event could be making just $700 a month. On the other hand, someone like a Mortal could make as much as a million dollars a year (approximately Rs 8 crore). That’s what the top gamers make. It must be noted that gamers are not esports athletes. Mortal is a retired athlete, who represented India multiple times at events, but is now into gaming,” Animesh Agarwal, who was also among the seven who met Modi, had told The Indian Express in an interview in July last year.

A varied bunch

A former Deloitte employee, Agarwal, who goes by his gaming name of 8Bit_Thug, took a break from his regular job in his early 20s to start two teams with Mortal. Currently, he is the founder and CEO of 8Bit Creatives, one of India’s top esports consulting and talent management agencies. He also founded S8UL, an entity that focuses on gaming content and esports.

Others from the group that got an audience with Modi also enjoy significant social media heft. Mithilesh Patankar (gaming name: MythPat) has 3.4 million followers on Instagram besides 14.6 million subscribers on YouTube, with all of his last 10 videos having at least 1.5 million views.

Payal Dhare (PayalGaming), hails from the small town of Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. The district has a population of about 20 lakh, but Payal’s 812 videos on YouTube since she started her channel in 2019 have racked up 36 crore pageviews and got her 3.7 million subscribers.

Besides social media, esports and gaming has been making steady inroads into the mainstream. Since 2022, Star Sports has been broadcasting the BGMI Masters Series on multiple channels. Jio Cinema jumped on the bandwagon this year and streamed a different event, called the Battlegrounds Mobile India Series (BGIS).

The group which met Modi also included Tirth Mehta, who hails from Gujarat’s Bhuj and has represented India at two Asian Games, competing in the sport called Hearthstone. At the Jakarta Asiad in 2018, he claimed a bronze medal, but esports was a demonstration event in that edition of the Asian Games. At last year’s Asiad in Hangzhou, esports was accorded the status of a proper sport, with medals won counting in nation’s tallies.

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Not just the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, esports could get further legitimacy when the Olympic Esports Games comes into being next year as announced by IOC chief Thomas Bach during the IOC Session in Mumbai last year.

Esports, especially in India, once used to have a perception problem: with many people unable to make the distinction between gaming and gambling. But leading gamers of the country getting an audience with the Prime Minister marks the latest step towards the mainstreaming of the pursuit.

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