2025 was the year India’s esports industry matured into a nationally recognized cultural, economic, and sporting force. From the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (PROGA) 2025 to the government formally extending cash incentives for esports medalists, the sector finally received the legitimacy it had long sought. India’s global presence also strengthened, with Ved Bamb clinching the nation’s first-ever esports world title in Pokemon GO.
Grassroots and state-level participation surged as esports debuted at the Khelo India Youth Games, Free Fire MAX esports returned, and states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan hosted official tournaments. Meanwhile, the rise of Indian game developers, improvements in hardware access, the dominance of streamers, and celebrity-led crossovers pushed gaming firmly into the mainstream.
It was also a defining year for global esports and youth entertainment leader NODWIN Gaming. The company acquired esports broadcasting giant StarLadder and secured a majority stake in Evo, the world’s longest-running fighting game tournament. It delivered some of India’s largest esports spectacles, including the Snapdragon Pro Series (SPS) Season 6 and the Valorant Challengers South Asia (VCSA), each featuring an INR 1 crore prize pool. Its flagship IP, Battlegrounds Mobile India Masters Series (BGMS), returned to national television with an expanded and more inclusive format featuring all-women teams, a Gujarati broadcast for the first time, and new brand entrants such as Tesla.
Beyond esports, NODWIN Gaming scaled its youth entertainment footprint by taking NH7 Weekender to Jaipur, Indore, and Noida, and forged key partnerships with ChessBase and Chess.com to advance chess esports in India. It also partnered with the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) to manage media rights across South Asia and collaborated with SonyLIV to broadcast select Esports World Cup (EWC) 2025 matches in India.
Akshat Rathee, Co-founder and Managing Director, NODWIN Gaming, said, “2025 has been the year India truly legitimized gaming and esports as a sport, a career, and a creative industry. For the first time, esports is being treated at par with traditional sports, supported by clear frameworks for athlete recognition, structured leagues, and policy backing. For NODWIN Gaming, we standardised our LAN setups across major IPs such as the BGMS, the NODWIN Africa Pro League, and the PUBG Mobile African Championship across Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, as well as the PMSL MENA tournaments in the Middle East. Our frameworks now extend into Europe too, where we host the StarLadder Budapest Major. Beyond tournaments, our IPs like DreamHack 2025 saw strong footfalls, while NH7 and Comic Con India expanded to more cities than ever before, creating nationwide festivals of music, gaming, and youth culture.”
If there was one organisation that embodied India’s global rise, it was S8UL. Its selection as a Club Partner for EWC 2025 symbolized India's arrival on the world stage. The organisation also won the ‘Esports Content Group of the Year’ award at the Esports Awards 2025 for the fourth consecutive time, while co-founder Animesh Agarwal became the first Indian to win ‘Esports Personality of the Year’. At home, S8UL launched India’s first-ever FGC Talent Hunt Program, a watershed moment for the domestic fighting game community.
iQOO SOUL, S8UL’s BGMI division, became one of the few global teams and the first from India to partner with Monster Energy and went on to lift the Chennai Esports Global Championship 2025. Further expanding its horizons, S8UL became the first Indian organisation to enter chess by signing grandmasters Nihal Sarin and Aravindh Chithambaram and also represented India at the Pokémon UNITE World Championship 2025.
“India has always had the talent and ambition to lead in esports and gaming, and this year genuinely felt like the industry entered the mainstream. The government has formally acknowledged esports, brands are investing with long-term vision, and new tournaments are building excitement at the grassroots level. For S8UL, 2025 has been about growth, validation, and connection. Being selected as a Club Partner for the Esports World Cup and winning at the Esports Awards for the fourth consecutive year was a proud moment that showed that Indian teams and creators can compete globally, while our on-ground events proved how strong the fan culture is at home,” commented Animesh Agarwal, Co-founder and CEO, S8UL.
Alongside competitive esports, 2025 was also a breakout year for PC gaming. Brands like CyberPowerPC India drove accessibility through initiatives such as its Esports Masterclass series, which educated gamers and parents, and India’s first ‘Play Guarantee’ offering a 30-day satisfaction assurance on Play Ready systems. The company expanded hands-on access by partnering with Orangutan Esports to power the ApeCity arena, launching its first experience zone at Vishal Peripherals in Hyderabad, and giving away a custom-built PC worth over INR 2.5 lakhs at Bengaluru Comic Con.
Vishal Parekh, Chief Operating Officer, CyberPowerPC India, noted, “2025 felt like a turning point for esports in India, especially with the arrival of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act. That single step brought a lot of reassurance, to parents, to schools, to brands, and most importantly to young players who finally felt that what they were building had real legitimacy. For PC Gaming, there’s also a clear change in how conversations around buying a PC are happening, gamers are talking openly about real-world performance, especially FPS, and not just ticking off a run of the mill list of components anymore.”
Looking ahead, India is poised for a decade of accelerated growth. The country is no longer just an emerging market but rather an active contributor to the global gaming economy. 2025 will be remembered as the year India stopped chasing acceptance and started shaping the future of gaming.
