India's Mobile-First Esports: A New Playing Field for Brands?

Forget packed PC gaming arenas—India's esports battleground fits in your pocket.  

94% of the subcontinent’s esports engagement happens on mobile devices, creating an entirely new competitive ecosystem with its own playbook. This mobile dominance stems from a perfect storm: affordable smartphones flooding the market (with entry gaming phones starting at ₹15,000), data plans costing just ₹8-10 per GB, and content that resonates with local cultural identity.  

For brands looking to score with India's gaming audience, understanding this mobile-first revolution isn't a sideline option—it's game-critical. In this blog, we decode the DNA of India’s mobile esports and explore how brands and marketers can capitalise on the gaming craze.  

Understanding India’s Mobile Esports Boom  

While traditional markets built their esports stadiums on expensive PC setups, India sprinted straight to mobile. Games like BGMI (with 100M+ downloads in its first year), Free Fire (which hit 80M daily active users in 2022), and Call of Duty Mobile aren't just popular—they're cultural phenomena reaching millions who consider mobile their primary gaming platform. 

This is mainly driven by accessibility, a key factor in an environment like India. A decent gaming smartphone costs approximately ₹15,000 ($180), compared to gaming PCs that start at ₹60,000 ($720). This democratization has created an esports scene that's vastly more inclusive and diverse than its Western counterparts. 

The tournament scene reflects this difference clearly. The BGMI Series 2023 finals peaked at 511,000 concurrent viewers, while the Free Fire India Championship 2022 prize pool reached ₹1 crore—competitive metrics that rival traditional PC tournaments but with far broader participation. 

Smartphones have also influenced how fans watch the action. The viewing experience is vertical, immediate, and integrated with social platforms. Samsung's partnership with BGMI pros like Thug and Jonathan demonstrated this perfectly. Their tournament-day Instagram takeovers—showing first-person, vertical-format gameplay on Galaxy devices—racked up millions of views in a single weekend.  

These communities organize differently too. Unlike the structured team environments of traditional esports, India's mobile gaming communities gather on platforms like Discord, WhatsApp groups, and Instagram. Tournaments are often announced, organized, and executed entirely through social media. Team Soul, led by Naman "Mortal" Mathur, demonstrated this power when they rallied 200,000+ viewers for an impromptu tournament announced just 24 hours in advance on Instagram. 

These unique circumstances create unique opportunities for marketers. Even though phones are cheap, Indians are ready to pay for in-game monetization with the right push. Similarly, the use of the smartphone as an all-serving platform, for gaming, content consumption, and community, is a perfect set up for a co-ordinated marketing campaign.  

But what’s the key to reaching these audiences? How does a marketer reach out to this mobile-first, young audience? The answer is Indian esports creators and influencers, who are paving the path for marketers to reach out to these audiences.  

Indian Esports Creator-Captains: A New Approach for Marketers? 

India's mobile esports scene isn't led by faceless organizations—it's dominated by creator-captains who build squads around their personal brand. Take GodLike Esports, founded by Chetan "Kronten" Chandgude. What began as a competitive BGMI squad evolved into the largest gaming facility in India, a gaming house in Mumbai where creators live, train, and produce content together.  

These creator-led groups—often from Tier 2 and 3 cities—function simultaneously as media houses, fanbases, and marketing platforms. A typical group might feature a main creator with 500,000 followers across platforms, supported by 5-10 team members who create complementary content, organize community events, and engage with fans. 

Think of the opportunities here; some subtle branding in the gaming house, a partnership with some of the creators, and you’ve reached out to a huge audience while strengthening your own brand positioning.  

While the fragmented nature of these communities means there's no single gateway for the entire audience, it also allows for highly targeted campaigns with authentic voices. India's mobile esports fandom is intensely regional and personality-driven, but it’s not a disadvantage. Fans rally behind players who represent their language, culture, and regional identity. Marketers can also capitalize on this, as shown by Mountain Dew's "Dew Arena" mobile tournaments.  

By incorporating regional qualifiers in seven different languages, they were able to reach an audience of about 3 lakh participants. Their region-specific trophy tours through Tier 2 cities like Lucknow, Indore and Bhubaneswar also drove a large number of hyper-local in-person attendees. 

These creator-led squads also move with lightning speed; something traditional organizations cannot match. Take for example the shift when BGMI was temporarily banned; Team XSpark (led by Naman "Mortal" Mathur) quickly put together a team for New State Mobile. Imagine the role this nimble nature could play in a quick campaign, going from ideation to execution in a fraction of the time due to esports’ teams' ever-running content engine and always-online audience.  

This is just some of the ways in which brands can capitalize on India’s gaming content creators  

Winning Moves: Lessons from Brands 

The brands dominating India's esports space aren't retrofitting existing strategies—they're building mobile-first game plans from scratch. These brands succeed because they ask: "If we were designing our strategy specifically for India's mobile-first gaming world, what would it look like?" 

Take the example of Gillette's “Match Ready” Campaign. While most brands would partner with esports creators for massive tournaments, Gillette instead opted for an authentic collaboration that connected their products to the lifestyle of gamers relateably. This offbeat campaign saw mobile esports players Scout (Tanmay Singh) and Ghatak (Abhijeet Andhare) in pre-tournament grooming rituals, delivering content in bite-sized vertical formats perfect for mobile consumption. 

 Take a look at some of the winning plays by brands in India’s esports scene: 

• Recruiting creator-captains as authentic voices for campaigns: OnePlus partnered with esports teams Gods Reign, K9, and Cincinnati Kids to promote their devices 

• Designing local-first tournament format: Take inspiration from Nodwin Gaming and Airtel’s “Airtel India Esports Tour”,  

• Creating content in regional languages beyond Hindi and English: Platforms like Rooter and Loco offer esports tournament streams in multiple regional languages, enabling brands to connect with non-English speakers 

• Focusing on community engagement over raw viewership metrics: PUMA sponsorsed Revenant Esports to engage with mobile gaming communities to build brand loyalty 

India is creating an entirely new esports ecosystem, where a mobile-first, creator-led approach offers new opportunities for brands. Success requires abandoning preconceptions about how esports "should" work and embracing the fluid, fast-moving nature of India's mobile gaming communities.  

The mobile esports revolution isn't waiting for brands to warm up—it's accelerating daily, creating new stars, communities, and engagement opportunities. For brands questioning whether they should join this match, consider Zupotsu. Our team specializes in creator partnerships, regional tournaments, and fan activations built specifically for mobile-first audiences. Connect with us to develop your winning strategy.  

Zupotsu is a martech platform on a mission to ‘digitize’ sports marketing. Zupotsu enables the discovery, engagement, and evaluation (the ‘DEE’ framework) for every sports and esports marketing asset. Please sign up at www.zupotsu.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram. Reach out at ‘marketing@zupotsu.com’ for any queries.