Ujjwal Chaurasia enjoyed gaming even as a five-year-old when he would play Snakes and Bounce on his older sibling’s Nokia telephone. His passion developed throughout the long term, and soon he was watching YouTube videos to get better at it, even though his family wasn’t happy with his fixation. As a 13-year-old, Chaurasia would play Tekken 3, an arcade game, and figured out how to download it on his sibling’s telephone, so he didn’t need to go to the arcade every time.

I made a tutorial video for this. I thought many people would want to know how to download this game too, “he says. It was his most memorable video on YouTube, back in 2016, and it got around 150 views. Today, known as Techno Gamerz or Ujjwal Gamer, Chaurasia gets a great many perspectives on every video and has around 27.5 million subscribers on his YouTube Channel.

While in school, Chaurasin would go through his days studying, and when his sibling got back from work, he would play games on his telephone. “My brother found the first video I made on Tekken3, saw that it had decent views, and encouraged me to take it up professionally,” recalls Chaurasia. Be that as it may, finding great software was a battle; even something as basic as a screen recording application wasn’t difficult to track down. “I would use another phone to record the games I was playing on my phone,” he laughs. The industry and software have developed monstrously from that point.

A Sequoia India and BCG report say that India’s gaming industry is more modest than that of the US and China, and accounts for 1% of the worldwide gaming market. In any case, it is creating 51.5 billion in revenue and is supposed to significantly increase to more than $5 billion by 2025, on the back of the “mobile first” peculiarity.

Some gamers play esports, and other gamers create content. Roland Landers, CEO of All India Gaming Federation, explains, “Those who create content around all kinds of games—casual, card, and fantasy games—are earning money through ads and sponsorships.” Among content creators, some live stream content, some make videos, and other people do both. An EY FICCI report says the number of online gamers in India has grown to around 390 million in 2021, with day-to-day players of 90-100 million. Online gamers are supposed to reach more than 450 million by 2023.

Why is gaming so popular?
Before this, gaming was a solitary player experience and hyper-casual games were enjoyable to play, not watch. “Before 2019, these games ruled the charts, but it is different now. Three of the top five games are mobile arcade games like BGMI, and these have completely changed gaming. They have the right mix of skill and strategy and are therefore fun to watch, “says Ashwin Suresh, founder of Loco, a game streaming platform. Content makers are taking advantage of this by making engaging and relatable videos.

“Gaming is a content hack,” says Mithilesh Patankar, who began his vocation with mime in college. He realized he needed to be in the entertainment space, so he uploaded a couple of mockery videos, just to acknowledge it wasn’t feasible. That is when Patankar, who was constantly intrigued by games, chose to utilize them to get into the content creation space. One of my first videos that went viral was me mimicking superstar Shah Rukh Khan while playing PUBG. So many people fell for this prank. “That’s when I decided to combine my love for entertainment and gaming,” he says.

He constantly explores, adding characters to games like GTA and thus carving out a niche for himself. “If you look at the entertainment industry, to make a movie you need a huge budget, but in this case, I can download a game, create a video for it and add characters and a storyline,” he adds. This has functioned admirably for Patankar, known as Mythpat, and he has nearly 12.1 million subscribers on his YouTube channel.

Makers are on a quest for predictable conveyance and to connect with different crowds. Ankur Singh, CEO, and founder, of Witzeal Technologies, says, “With digital marketing rising across industries, the gaming sector is also waking up to the value of content creators.” They have been able to curate highly engaging content that audiences can relate to.

Chaurasia, who uploads nearly five videos each week, says, “I spend an hour every day going through the analytics of my last video and researching what to upload.” Based on what my audience wants and what I feel like creating, I decide on the subject of my next video. ” He makes videos of games like GTA, Gang Beasts, Minecraft, and Valorant.

Mansi Gupta, 22, referred to in the gaming world as Magsplay, likes to have different content on her channel. She began her gaming journey while working at OpraahFx, a gaming influencer marketing agency, where she got a brief look at the “behind the scenes.” She turned to OpraahFx, a gaming influencer marketing agency, where she got a brief look at the “behind the scenes.” Her choice to turn into an expert gamer was hard to process for her chartered accountant guardians. I started playing PUBG as a stress reliever and would play for seven to eight hours and enjoy it. I told my parents to let me create 100 videos, and if I couldn’t make a living, I would quit, “she recalls.

In 2020, she uploaded her most memorable video. She is yet to finish 100 videos, but as of now, has 674,000 subscribers on YouTube. When most people in India think of gamers, it’s always a male gamer. “Though this is changing, it will take some time for people to think of both men and women as gamers,” Gupta says.

Making Money as a Gamer
For gaming content makers, the two significant income streams are YouTube AdSense and brand tie-ups (with gaming and non-gaming organizations), while live streamers can likewise profit using YouTube Super Chats.

“Considering that online gaming has a diverse user base, appealing content increases the affinity towards gaming.” “Creators play games, review them, share their experiences, and even create a narrative around themes, thereby urging others to engage,” says Singh of Witzeal Technologies, which works with creators to target potential users. Chaurasia and Gupta hope to expand into streaming, but not Patankar. “Videos have more reach compared to live streams.” Secondly, you can plan content a lot better and you have time to edit the video. “With streams, you only have those few hours to entertain people,” says Patankar.

Loco, likewise, works intimately with makers, assists them with gaining admittance to bigger crowds, and provides them with monetary help. Budding streamers can stream via our Loco Studio app, which has a tab for new streamers, making discovery much easier. New streamers find support through Loco’s training programs and masterclasses from experienced players, says Anirudh Pandita, founder of Loco.

Analysts believe the growth of gaming influencers has also led to the industry’s growth as a whole. “Their intention is also to build a community and ecosystem where uber talents like videographers, photographers, content writers, and special effects professionals collaborate and work with them.” Hence, the content creators are also creating jobs and contributing to the overall economy of the country, “says Landers. An Invest India report says the Indian gaming industry can capture 5% of the worldwide market in the animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics (AVGC) sector by 2025, with 25 to 30% yearly development, and more than 1. 6 lakh new positions every year.

Be that as it may, things are not Okie-dokie for gamers. “Lately, gaming brands aren’t spending too much on campaigns due to government restrictions. Earlier, we would see brand deals from non-gaming and gaming brands, but now it’s mostly non-gaming brands, “says Gupta. Furthermore, a great many people in India don’t yet consider gaming to be a serious calling. Most gamers, likewise, face technical issues. For example, Chaurasia says, “You need a PC with a good processor and graphics card.” “All these things end up being too expensive.”

Patankar adds that gamers are underrated in India: “I never wanted to be a part of the ‘gamers’ cluster, because gamers are super underrated in India. If you look at some of the other top YouTubers, their audiences are very different from ours, which also affects the kind of brand collaborations we get. I always worked on being a part of the larger circle. ” Because of this technique, he believes he has been able to work with brands such as Netflix and Spotify, which not all traditional gamers have had the opportunity to do.

What’s Next?
As for most different segments, Web3 is, by all accounts, the most recent trend in the gaming scene as well. Loco is the first to have released its own NFT platform for esports superfans called “Legends,” which will before long be open for users to become traders of digital assets, regarding them as investments. Both Chaurasia and Gupta are anticipating it. Gupta plays a game called Sandbox, which frequently includes NFT. “Sandbox is planning to come to India soon, so I’m keeping a close watch on that space,” she says. Similarly, Chaurasia, who generally wanted to turn into a developer, says, “Sometime or another I will have my own game—presumably in the NFT space.” But for now, similar to any other content creator, these gamers have their eyes on hitting huge achievements on their YouTube channels.

Credit: Forbes India