BGMI: Krafton's 'Once in a Decade' Win, and Future Plans for India Market Krafton quietly is building a 'small and nimble but strong' gaming studio in Bengaluru, aiming to develop and ship games at a faster pace.

How does one replicate the success of BGMI (Battlegrounds Mobile India)? Even for Krafton, it's a big task.

For the uninitiated, BGMI made a dramatic entry in India in 2021 after its previous iteration, PUBG Mobile India, was banned in the aftermath of the India-China border clash. BGMI quickly grabbed the user base vacated by the previous version.

Since its release, BGMI has accumulated 240 million downloads in India, Krafton India CEO Sean Hyunil Sohn told Entrepreneur India.

Without divulging active user numbers, Sohn said BGMI has a solid user base in the country and that they are seeing revenue per user growing steadily over the last four years.

BGMI, along with Garena Free Fire, has been one of the biggest games in India in terms of revenue, according to a report by Sensor Tower, a platform that tracks the digital economy, including app download data, app analysis, and ad performance insights.

Krafton earlier this year disclosed that BGMI recorded its highest-ever sales in 2024, contributing to a 35.7% YoY increase in mobile revenue. The game also drove Krafton's overall earnings to a record revenue of USD 1.86 billion in 2024, a significant 41.8% growth YoY. BGMI and PUBG (global iteration) together helped Krafton's operating profit surge 54% to USD 812 million.

What's next after once in a decade success

Sohn describes BGMI as a "once-in-a-decade" success and that odds of new games that go on to make USD 10 million in annual revenue are slim.

It's pertinent to note that Krafton has launched quite a few games in the last one year or so. This includes Road to Valor: Empires, Garuda Saga, Bullet Echo India, and Cookie Run: India among others. These games, however, are quite different from the popular battle royal game.

Road to Valor: Empires reportedly has 1.38 million downloads, according to Chrome stats, while Garuda Saga has nearly a lakh downloads on the Google Play Store. Note that these are third party statistics and not necessarily reflective of the game of quality or performance.

Sohn tells Entrepreneur India that the company did not have a very clear direction which kind of games Indian gamers would like when they started launching new games a couple of years ago.

"Now, we have!," he adds.

Going forward, the company will be doubling down on BGMI by providing more and fresh content while unlocking other opportunities.

Deep pockets

The above-mentioned 'other opportunities' is quite intriguing. Krafton India has set aside USD 50 million for the Indian market and is also eyeing growth via acquisitions and investments. This is of course other than usual game development and support to the gaming ecosystem.

The company recently acquired Pune-based cricket game developer Nautilus Mobile in March for USD 14 million. Sohn says the company may focus on sports games in the future.

"I believe that will give us a better chance of making some sizable success," he said.

When asked about if the company has identified new companies for acquisitions and investments, Krafton India CEO said that the company is always in constant conversations but doesn't have any company close to a deal as of now.

Interestingly, Krafton also led a large USD 53 million funding round in fintech startup Cashfree earlier this year. The investment, however, is aimed at supporting one of its payment partners, which is also benefiting from in-app payments from its popular games. Probably, there will be some more integration and deeper synergy in the future as well.

"And at the same time, Cashfree has good engineering capabilities which might be helpful for the gaming industry… We have invested a good amount of funds there although given the size of the company we our stake is not that significant but we have started conversation with them what to do together uh and what kind of synergy we can create together," he explained.

It is worth mentioning that payment firms were among the prime beneficiaries of the in-app purchases. Several reports indicate that these fintech firms were hit hard by the ban on real-money games. According to an Economic Times report, the payments industry could potentially lose INR 20,000-30,000 crore in monthly transaction volumes once movement of money for RMGs vaporises.

India's massive and complicated market

India remains the world's largest mobile gaming market by downloads. In FY2024-25, it saw an 8.45 billion installs, driven by affordable data, smartphone access, and an increasing demographic of young tech savvy audience, according to the Sensor Tower report cited above.

From a revenue point of view, India recorded USD 400 million revenue, which is steadily growing, but yet modest compared to mature markets. The steady growth, however, is coming from ease of payments through UPI and rising base of high value iOS users, the report added.

Traditionally, India has remained a price sensitive market, a challenge for several internet companies. Though firms have tried to deploy unique strategies to tap into the market. For instance, Netflix has mobile-only plans for as low as INR 149 (nearly USD 1.69). Perplexity recently partnered with Airtel to bundle its Pro subscription for free one year.

Sohn says Indian consumers are value conscious and that they are willing to spend once they feel that the value to price ratio is high enough. He also cited the example of KuKu FM and microdrama as a category's growth in India.

The audio streaming service recorded a 2.1x year-on-year growth to INR 88 crore in FY24, up from INR 41 crore in FY23, according to Entrackr. Revenue from paywalled subscription sales served as the sole source of income for Kuku FM.

"...even if it's like entertainment, which is not regarded as a very tangible thing you want to purchase, but I think now people are more willing to spend," he said.

It is also worth noting that a lot of revenues for the Indian gaming market was coming from real-money games. Now that those games are history, it's upon conventional gaming firms to push the revenues as well as overall ecosystem.

According to a Lumikai report released in November 2024, real-money gaming remains the largest revenue contributor to the overall gaming industry, which was pegged at USD 3.8 billion in FY2023-24. Real-money games accounted for USD 2.4 billion of the total revenues. The report estimates that the gaming industry will be worth USD 9.2 billion by FY29.

Sohn, however, thinks that the ban on RMGs will not have much impact as the user base is completely different. Though the byproduct could be availability of more good talent for the firm. He also highlighted that the company has multiple openings and intends to fill them as quickly as possible.

The India studio

Krafton is quietly developing a gaming studio in India. The company recently hired a studio head who is tasked to build a "small and nimble but strong team." The Bengaluru-based team is expected to ship games for the local market at a faster pace. There is no word on whether the team will build games for the global market, though it's not something impossible.

"... we will be able to share more in detail maybe around mid-next year… At this stage it's very early. So there we have a rough idea what to do with this development team, but it's too early to share," he said.

A local publishing house makes a lot of sense for a gaming company that is deeply invested in India. Apart from shipping the content at a much faster rate, the firm can actually double down on local content. It's worth noting that gaming giants Ubisoft and Rockstar have studios here.

Summing up,

Krafton seems confident of its future foray in the Indian market. It is also deploying a large sum for the growth and is looking at both gaming and non-gaming verticals. BGMI has remained a big revenue generator for the firm but it needs to sustain the momentum. India's growing digital economy and revived focus on conventional games definitely offer a glimmer of hope. Through local studios and partnerships, it's likely to maintain its hold in the market. Just today, esports firm Nodwin Gaming announced a collaboration with Tesla for the Grand Finals of the Battlegrounds Mobile India Masters Series (BGMS) Season 4.