In the past couple of years, there has been a huge surge in the popularity of fantasy games and esports as well as pay-to-play gaming in India. In fact, according to a recent industry report, India’s gaming population is expected to grow from 420 million players in 2022 to 500 million players by 2025.

This huge market and the various opportunities it offers have led many entrepreneurs to start their startups in this field. This has led to a lot of competition and a lot of effort to keep their users.

The top 15 companies that generated revenue in this segment, which includes some of the biggest names like Gameskraft, A23 and MPL, have made a total of Rs 9,903 crore in revenue in FY22. But what’s even more interesting is that these companies spent more than half of that sum on ads and promotions, which amounted to over Rs 5000 crore.

Fintrackr analyzed the data and found that the advertisement and promotional spending for these startups increased by 27% in FY22, rising from Rs 4, 197.9 crores to Rs 5, 191.3 crores. On the other hand, the revenue also grew at the same rate, rising by 27% to Rs 7,158.81 crore in FY22 compared to the previous year.

Top revenue-generating fantasy and pay-to-play gaming startups

Gameskraft, which operates RummyTime, Pocket52 generated revenue of Rs 2.112 crore. During the same period, Gameskraft also spent Rs 1.336 crore on advertising and promotion which was a 120% increase in ad spending from FY21 to FY22.

In FY22, MPL’s revenue was Rs 500 crore and A23’s revenue was Rs 722 crore. During the same period, MPL’s advertisement spend stood at Rs 700 crore while A23’s was Rs 550 crore.

Other notable startups in this space

WinZo, a Delhi-based gaming company reported revenue of Rs.234 crore in FY22, which is lower than the Rs.500 crore threshold that the top five companies have achieved. The companies spent a total of Rs.199 crore on advertising in FY22 with a whopping 553% increase in ad spend.

MyTeam11, on the other hand, is one of the newer startups that had cumulatively generated Rs 173.9 crores in FY22. Like many other startups, they spent a lot on customer acquisition in FY22, which was almost Rs 178.6 crores, which was more than their cumulative revenue. Only Games24x7 and MyTeam11 had a decrease in their ad spend in FY22.

With the growing popularity of gaming, it is expected that the number of gaming apps will also increase. Recently, the co-founder of BharatPe and former judge of Shark Tank India, Ashneer Grover, announced the launch of a new fantasy league app, CrickPe, to compete with the current players.

Credit: Entrackr