What is Gaming engagement, spending increased drastically in India after 2021: Krafton India exec

A year after it was PUBG game — Battlegrounds Mobile India (PUBG) — has crossed 100 million users in India. For PUBG, the first year of the pandemic (2020) came with its own set of challenges in India. It was the time when its game PUBG: Mobile — launched in the country in partnership with Chinese tech giant Tencent — was banned. However, bounced back with its new PUBG which was launched in July 2021. PUBG success coupled with the changes are reasons why battleground is approaching the Indian market more seriously now.

However, according to Anuj Head Corporate Development, India, Middle East and North Africa, it’s not just downloads and users, the biggest change is that Indian users are now spending more on in-app game purchases.Get breaking news alerts, subscribe now

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Gaming engagement, spending increased drastically in India after 2021: Krafton India exec

BGMI’s success coupled with the changes in consumer behaviour are some of the reasons why Krafton is approaching the Indian market more seriously now, and plans to increase its investments in India as well.

Written by Shruti Dhapola | New Delhi |

Updated: July 15, 2022 7:23:21 pm

Krafton's logo is seen in this photo

South Korean developer Krafton is investing heavily in India as the spending on games increases.

A year after it was launched, Krafton’s popular game — Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) — has crossed 100 million users in India. For Krafton, the first year of the pandemic (2020) came with its own set of challenges in India. It was the time when its game PUBG: Mobile — launched in the country in partnership with Chinese tech giant Tencent — was banned. However, Krafton bounced back with its new property, BGMI, which was launched in July 2021. BGMI’s success coupled with the changes in consumer behaviour are some of the reasons why Krafton is approaching the Indian market more seriously now.

However, according to Anuj Tandon, Head Corporate Development, Krafton, India, Middle East and North Africa, it’s not just downloads and users, the biggest change is that Indian users are now spending more on in-app game purchases.

“The perception was that in-app purchases, people purchasing more skins of the games characters and other stuff, did not happen in India. But in 2021, at least four to five games in India would have made more than 100 million dollars through in-app purchases annually. This was unheard of three to four years back,” Tandon told indianexpress.com over the phone.

In his view, 2021 was the year when the market crossed a very important turning point in the mobile gaming space. “People are valuing in-app entertainment as a legitimate form of entertainment and have started putting money towards it. This will also attract a lot of global companies to think about this market more seriously,” he added. This change is critical as before pandemic India was mostly viewed as a downloads farm, not one where consumers were likely to spend on the game itself.