NEW DELHI : The banned mobile game BattleGrounds Mobile India (BGMI) has been downloaded more than 100 million times since its launch in the country in July 2021, its South Korean developer Krafton Inc. said while announcing earnings for the June quarter. The company said it “increased new users, retention and revenue” in India in the first half of the year, attributing the growth to BGMI and various strategic partnerships.
In addition, the company said the BGMI Masters Tournament, organized in partnership with homegrown Nodwin Gaming and broadcast on Star Sports, had 24 million television viewers and 200 million total viewers.
According to Krafton, global sales rose 3% year over year in the first half of 2022, while operating income rose 18% over the same period. In May, the company said it generated 95% of its sales from international markets in the March quarter. For the quarter ended June, total revenue was approximately $325 million. Interestingly, the launch of BGMI was prompted after the Indian government banned Chinese apps on June 29, 2020. Back then, the country banned PUBG Mobile, which was similarly popular in India and operated by China’s Tencent. BGMI was a version of PUBG Mobile specifically for India, operated by Krafton with no support from Tencent. It was banned by the government on July 28, citing national security concerns.
Like PUBG Mobile, BGMI had become the go-to game for Indian eSports in its short span of time. The combined prize pool of some of the top BGMI tournaments in 2022 was approx €6-8 crores. In comparison, the annual prize pool of Valorant, the second-biggest eSports game in India, is not even 15% of the BGMI, said Devdeep Dhar, a professional gamer. The BGMI Master Series, hosted by Nodwin Gaming in July, was the first eSports tournament ever to be televised on Indian television. The BGMI ban is now expected to impact Krafton’s profits in the September quarter and also impact the entire gambling industry in India in the second half of 2022.
“The reason Krafton had a great first half was restarting the tournaments locally. The scope of tournaments this year was much larger and that resulted in increased revenue and profits for Krafton,” said Rohit Agarwal, Founder and Director of Alpha Zegus, a gaming marketing firm.
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