In India's Gaming Boom, Creators Navigate a Pay-to-Play Paradox

India's gaming revolution tells a story of massive scale and stubborn contradictions. The country now boasts 488 million online gamers as of 2024, nearly 1.5 times the population of the United States, yet fewer than 10 percent ever spend money on games, according to industry research from FICCI and EY.

This fundamental mismatch has forced a generation of Indian gaming creators to abandon Western monetization models entirely, crafting instead a parallel economy built on what industry insiders call "attention arbitrage": the art of converting massive audiences into revenue streams that sidestep traditional payment barriers.

The numbers illustrate the challenge: YouTube creators in India typically earn just ₹20-40 per 1,000 views, a fraction of rates in Western markets. Meanwhile, Twitch, the world's dominant game streaming platform, holds less than 2 percent of streaming hours in India, dwarfed by YouTube and homegrown alternatives that better understand local preferences.

The roots of this divide lie in India's mobile-centric gaming culture. With 97 percent of the country's gamers playing exclusively on smartphones, according to FICCI-EY data, the market developed around free-to-play titles rather than the premium console games that built Western gaming culture.

This created what can be described as a "monetization gap": enormous audiences trained to expect free content in a market where direct payments remain culturally resistant.

Recognizing that Western models wouldn't translate, Indian entrepreneurs began building platforms designed specifically for local behaviors. Rooter, one of the country's leading gaming platforms, reached ₹82 crore in revenue for fiscal year 2025 with over 85 million users, according to Business Today reporting.

The platform's success stems from understanding local preferences: rather than relying on subscriptions, Rooter built a virtual gifting system where creators receive 90 percent of gift revenue, digital items that fans purchase and send during streams, mimicking the microtransaction systems familiar from mobile games.

For Indian gaming creators, the real money lies in sponsorships. According to EY research, over 70 percent of creator revenue in gaming and esports comes from brand partnerships rather than platform payments. This has coincided with explosive growth in India's influencer marketing sector, with brand spending expected to cross ₹1,500 crore in 2023.

However, the industry faced a seismic shift in August 2025 when President Droupadi Murmu gave assent to the Online Gaming Regulation Bill, which banned all Real Money Gaming (RMG), apps that allowed players to win cash prizes. The move eliminated what had been the primary source of sponsorship funding for gaming creators, with RMG contributing 55-60 percent of the overall gaming market pre-regulation.

However, the same legislation could provide crucial legitimacy by officially recognizing esports as a sport, opening doors for mainstream brands from banking, automotive, and lifestyle sectors that had previously avoided the gaming space due to regulatory uncertainty.

Expect initiatives like smartphone manufacturers like iQOO integrating gaming creators into product development processes to increase.

Perhaps nowhere is the Indian approach more evident than on STAN, a homegrown fan platform that has accumulated 25 million downloads by reimagining how creators monetize superfans. Instead of charging for access to videos like Western platform Patreon, STAN sells "Club Passes" that grant entry to voice chat rooms, private tournaments, and direct creator interactions.

The platform has raised $8.5 million in funding while generating core revenue from experiential access rather than content subscriptions, a model that industry analysts say better aligns with Indian consumer behavior around digital spending.

Today's successful Indian gaming creators operate what EY research describes as "hybrid models": diversified revenue streams that combine platform monetization, brand partnerships, affiliate marketing, and merchandise sales. While affiliate sales and merchandise represent less than 10 percent of total creator income, they serve crucial roles in community building and fan engagement.

The Indian gaming market has effectively solved a problem that Western creators are only beginning to confront: how to monetize attention when audiences resist direct payments.

As traditional Western monetization models face increasing pressure, the Indian approach offers insights that extend beyond gaming. The focus on experiential rather than content-based monetization, the integration of creators into product development, and the emphasis on community building over individual consumption represent strategies that could prove valuable as global audiences develop their own resistance to subscription fatigue.