According to the recently released Ernst & Young June 2021 Report on "Esports in India", the esports industry in India is set to grow four fold in size to Rs.11 billion by 2025, from Rs.250 crores at present.

Esports can be defined as online games of skill that are played in tournaments or leagues wherein various teams or individual contests against each other to win these events or title, just like the physical sports.

The key findings of the report are as follows:

A new kind of sport is on the rise in India, fuelled by a prize pool expected to reach INR1 billion by FY2025, and it is not the same as online gaming. It is esports.

Esports already has over 150,000 professional players and generates viewership from 17 million people across 14 broadcast platforms. This is expected to grow to 1.5 million professional players, 85 million viewers and 20+ broadcasters by FY2025.

Esports industry revenues have reached nearly INR3 billion in FY2021 and are expected to reach INR11 billion by FY2025. Tournament revenues, streaming media revenues and prize pool are key revenue streams.

Esports creates an opportunity to build India’s soft power internationally as international events like the Asian games and the South Asian Games add esports to their list of official competitions. In the 18th Asian Games, held in 2018, Tirth Mehta, an esports player from India, won a bronze medal.