The art of live streaming: India's own are catching up fast with a viral, global phenomenon

India’s gaming community, which has been growing in the shadows away from the limelight, came forward for the first time two months ago to protest the government's decision to ban PUBG mobile app. That’s when most people got a glimpse of this booming industry.

“It is a completely mad fandom; it is an insane amount of money,” said Piyush Kumar, CEO and founder of Rooter, an online sports and gaming community platform. “India is slated to grow very fast in terms of gaming revenue. People have just realised how big this industry is.”

India’s live-streaming gaming industry is about $35-50 million, according to Rooter. It expects it to be $300 million in another three years. The top 10 creators in gaming on Youtube based in India have more than 1 million subscribers. Top streaming platforms in India include YouTube, Rheo TV, Loco, and Rooter.

"Gaming content in India used to be mostly in Hindi and English. Now we’re seeing the rise of gaming content in other Indic languages such as Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, and Malayalam. Non-Hindi creators with less than 5K subscribers in 2018 are hitting 6-figure subscriber numbers today," YouTube said in email response.

There are roughly 100 million game streaming audiences either creating or consuming content. Out of this, live streaming gamers would be at best 100,000, and professional gamers account for only 20% of this population. “The age group in this profession is 16-24 years old,” Kumar said.

Read More at https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/media/entertainment/the-art-of-live-streaming-indias-own-are-catching-up-fast-with-a-viral-global-phenomenon/articleshow/78589772.cms