M-League announced the launch of Blast+, a dedicated Free-to-Play publishing arm. Blast+ will help both global and indie game developers publish and scale their games in India, the fastest-growing mobile gaming market in the world.
“We believe that Free to Play (F2P) represents the next big opportunity for gaming in India,” said Sai Srinivas, Co-Founder, M-League, “The F2P market in India is on the same level that skill gaming was in 2018 when we started MPL. We are already seeing some green shoots, with an uptick in In-App Purchases (IAP) as well as willingness to try new titles. We’re confident that Blast+ can unlock substantial revenue potential for F2P games and attract a new gaming audience in India.”
M-League’s F2P publishing foray, comes on the back of its success with GameDuell in Europe. When M-League acquired GameDuell in 2022, it was primarily a web-based skill gaming company. M-League invested in transforming GameDuell into a cross-platform experience spanning web and mobile, with a strong focus on Free-to-Play. Today, close to 70% of its revenue is generated from F2P games.
Blast+ aims at bringing new games to India from global and indie gaming studios, with a dedicated focus on localisation, marketing, live operations, payment solutions, data analytics and a robust customer service. The company has put together a powerhouse team of industry veterans from EA, Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Wargaming and Scopely, bringing exceptional expertise in game publishing and player engagement.
There are close to 600 million gamers in India. According to a report by Lumikai, Indian gamers are increasingly open to experimenting with new genres and intellectual properties (IP). 41% of users have graduated from playing casual games to exploring all kinds of games, and 28% are eager to experiment with new genres. The Indian market is also seeing notable growth in In-App Purchase spend across the industry, with the average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) reaching $19.2 in FY23, growing nearly 10x since FY19.