The ban on multiplayer gaming app PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) by the government has caught professional gamers and e-sport organisers off guard. While some of these players are looking at turning to other games such as 'Call of Duty' and 'Battle Royale', most believe that the same craze among users may not return soon.
GamingMonk, India's largest e-sports platform in terms of users, said it had to cancel 700 PUBG tournaments scheduled for this month. The company had over 30,000 PUGB players on the platform on a daily basis and each tournament's participation size could range from a few hundred to even 20,000 gamers. It is an online platform where multiple players register from various locations.
"But we see a huge influx of users playing other similar games on our platform as people ventured into them during the lockdown and also an inorganic push from the game publishers themselves. Luckily, only a small part of our revenues came from PUBG but I don't see more than a 10-15 per cent drop in terms of our daily users as they will start playing other games," said Ashwin Haryani, co-founder of GamingMonk. "However, we can say we have easily at least 500,000 registered PUBG users on the platform."
PUBG occupied 40 per cent of the overall share for battle royale genre on GamingMonk platform, and now the alternatives stand to gain, he added. The startup said gamers have already taken to to similar games such as 'Call of Duty'. Fortnite and Free Fire after the ban.
Similarly, Trinity Gaming, an e-sports talent management and marketing firm, had to put five PUBG tournaments, scheduled to happen over the next few days, on hold due to the ban. The Noida-based firm has worked with global and domestic brands such as 'India Today', and 'Redbull' to organise these tournaments, and helps live streamers in terms of marketing and graphics to help their social media platforms and Youtube channels gain a better reach.
The game belongs to the battle royale genre where 100 different players leap from a parachute to different locations. The player or squad standing is declared the winner. Last week, PUBG was one of the 118 apps banned by the Indian government over of national security concerns.
The game has over 175 million estimated downloads in India. The country accounts for around 25 per cent of the gaming app’s global user base. This was a key factor that also drove the Tencent's valuations. PUBG’s monthly revenues from India are estimated in the range of $1.5 million to as much as $7 million, depending on the month. The official revenue numbers are not publicly available.
The ban also affected professional gamers who take part in tournaments and stream their content online for fans. Experts say top professional gamers make up to 3 million per month from YouTube and in-video ads and brand partnerships. They also make as much as Rs 100,000 per video due to donations and featured comments made by fans on YouTube. Gaming hardware makers such as Corsair, Nvidia and Asus also pay the gamers to endorse their brands.
"The gamers whose entire Youtube or Discord channels built around PUBG will be severely impacted especially when their core audience has been following them for their gaming skills over the last two years. They are back to square one and developing similar audience, gameplay or skills in a new game will take months," said Rahul Singh, chief executive and co-founder at Bengaluru-based influential marketing firm Winkl. "Also, this may not result in a 'Tiktok' moment for the Indian alternatives as it is much more difficult to build games with high-end graphics within weeks."