From battlegrounds to big businesses: Indian gaming enters its Gen Z gold rush moment

Gen Z isn’t playing around. They’re building entire worlds inside games, hanging out in virtual lobbies more than real ones, and increasingly ignoring everything that doesn’t feel native to their experience. For advertisers trying to reach them, gaming is no longer an option; instead, it’s a necessity.

India’s gaming economy is undergoing one of its fastest transformations in recent years. This isn’t just about new games launching. It’s about cricket governing bodies commissioning mobile titles. It’s about telcos bundling esports perks with prepaid plans. It’s about chess becoming a spectator sport with real sponsors. And it’s about the global big boys like Meta backing Indian gaming developers with tooling and money.

India’s gaming market is estimated at USD 4.04billion in 2025, and is projected to nearly double to USD8.36billion by 2030, growing at a 15.7% CAGR. Other reports vary slightly: All India Game Developers Forum estimates the sector will reach USD4.5billion by end-2025, supporting around 250,000 jobs, which is a good thing for new generations entering the workforce, especially given their dependence on tech.

“Gen Z is digitally native, mobile-first, and attention-fragmented, and gaming is one of the few mediums where they are fully present, engaged, and expressive,” says Akshat Rathee, Co-founder and MD of NODWIN Gaming. “For brands, this makes gaming less of a niche and more of a strategic cultural touchpoint.”

Rathee’s point is hard to argue with. In an era where social media is losing its novelty, and traditional media is gasping for relevance among young audiences, gaming sits at the intersection of entertainment, identity, and community. For Gen Z, it’s not just about playing—it’s about co-creating, performing, and belonging.

Gaming isn’t a trend. It’s a territory.

According to Sensor Tower’s 2025 report, India is now the world’s largest mobile gaming market by downloads, clocking a staggering 8.45 billion downloads in FY 2024-25. That’s more than double Indonesia’s 3.34 billion. For brands that think of gaming as “youth culture,” the data says: it is the culture.

Parth Chadha, Co-founder and CEO of STAN, underlines the shift. “What we’re witnessing is a massive behavioral transformation. Gen Z consumes less traditional media and is more likely to engage with brands in immersive, gamified environments,” he says. “Our partnerships with Swiggy and Honda in 2024 show how brands are embedding themselves into community experiences.”

At STAN, which has clocked over 25 million downloads, Chadha sees mobile-first gaming as not just entertainment, but infrastructure. He points to the recent Jio x Krafton collaboration—gaming-first prepaid data plans—as a signal of India’s gaming normalization. “We believe this step makes high-quality gaming experiences accessible for millions of young aspiring gamers in India,” he adds.

Globally, in?game advertising is already valued at USD11billion in 2025, and expected to grow to USD18.2billion by 2029. Within India, brands are increasingly allocating budget toward gaming platforms. During IPL 2025, gaming brands like Dream11 and MPL reportedly increased their spend by 50–60% year-over-year, dominating both TV and digital sponsorships.

Rohit Agarwal, Founder and Director of Alpha Zegus, sees gaming as the most organic way for brands to engage Gen Z’s notoriously fickle attention span. “Unlike traditional advertising, gaming offers an experiential medium— where product placement, storytelling, and community interaction can all happen within the same ecosystem,” he says. “Whether it’s brand skins in mobile cricket games or sponsoring chess streamers on YouTube, we’re seeing a shift from interruptive advertising to embedded engagement.”

That shift comes with rising expectations. With India projected to hit over 650 million gamers by 2026, Agarwal notes that telco partnerships, cloud gaming, and esports IP creation are signs of real market maturity. But he’s also quick to add a caveat. “If the focus is purely on quick monetization or one-off tournaments, it risks creating hype without ecosystem depth. Monetization has to be localized—small spends, high value, emotionally resonant.”

This isn’t a new warning. Rathee of NODWIN also points to past misfires. “We’ve seen this cycle before,” he says. “From VC-funded content platforms to international esports teams signing Indian rosters, many came in fast and faded just as quickly. Most lacked a clear focus on long-term sustainability and profitability.”

Don’t sell ads. Sell belonging.

If there’s one sentiment echoed across industry voices, it’s this: Gen Z doesn’t want to be marketed to. They want to be invited in.

“From mobile cricket matches to chess livestreams, gaming isn’t the side act anymore, it’s the main stage,” says Vishal Prabhu, Creative Controller at White Rivers Media Solutions. “Basic integrations or surface-level presence won’t cut it. Gen Z doesn’t respond to ads, they respond to what speaks to them—culture.”

The brands that are breaking through are, as Prabhu puts it, “playing with the audience, not at them.” That means co-creation, meme fluency, and building presence within gaming communities—not just sponsoring them.

But culture-first isn’t always easy to scale. It’s much simpler to launch a campaign than to cultivate a loyal fandom. “Gen Z wants more than just data packs and giveaways,” says Prabhu. “They care about safe, inclusive spaces, creative freedom, and community-first ecosystems. If we treat gaming purely as a revenue stream, we risk losing the very culture that built it.”

Mikhail Bhuta, Co-founder and Tech Lead at Dirtcube Interactive LLP, brings a developer’s eye to the equation. “Gen Z doesn’t just engage with games, they live inside them,” he says. With over 570 million mobile gamers in India and younger users spending more time in gaming environments than on traditional social platforms, gaming has become the new social hub.

According to Sensor Tower, India logged an astounding 8.45billion mobile game downloads in FY2024?25, reinforcing its position as the world leader in mobile installs.

And that’s where brand strategy needs to evolve. “Whether it’s a fashion label drawing 20 million visits in Roblox or a phone brand allocating 20 percent of its marketing budget to esports, the message is clear: engaging Gen Z means building immersive, interactive experiences that reflect their values,” Bhuta says.

It’s a tightrope walk. The promise of India’s gaming future is immense, but so is the potential for tone-deaf, copypaste campaigns that alienate instead of invite. “Gen Z is highly discerning,” Bhuta warns. “If companies overlook player culture, they risk alienation. The key to success lies in balancing scale with authenticity—creating meaningful, community-first experiences while maintaining fair, transparent monetization.”

That point is echoed by Vishal Parekh, Chief Operating Officer at CyberPowerPC India. “This audience is notoriously difficult to target. Often referred to as ‘dark media,’ they are less responsive to traditional advertising and seek content that feels relevant and authentic,” he says.

At CyberPowerPC, the focus has been on enabling quality experiences rather than just visibility. “We’re powering esports arenas like ApeCity, supporting grassroots talent with esports-ready rigs, and helping India’s mobile-first gamers transition into PC gaming through our EZPC tool,” Parekh says. “The convergence of infrastructure, content, and commerce holds the potential to shape the next wave of gaming innovation in India—as long as it stays true to the needs of the gaming community.”

Because that’s where the real gold lies. Not in impressions or CPMs, but in the relationships brands build with a generation that has grown up seeing through everything.