BGMI maker Krafton chooses India as its biggest bet

livemint.com:

Mint in an exclusive interview that the company sees India as a crucial market. “Globally, India is already the fourth- or fifth-highest contributing market for Krafton. In the future, India has the potential to become the biggest market for Krafton thanks to its unique position of the sheer size of the market, as well as an increasing amount of interest in e-sports in the country," he said on Tuesday.

Kim added that the total $170 million invested by Krafton so far in India "is higher than what the company has invested anywhere around the world". The company has invested in Indian companies such as e-sports firm Nodwin Gaming—a subsidiary of the publicly-listed Nazara Technologies, audio streaming platform Kuku FM, and content platform Pratilipi in a bid to diversify its offerings beyond gaming. Krafton, listed publicly in South Korea, reported a net revenue of $483.2 million between January and March—claiming it to be a quarterly record.

Prior to this, it had reported net annual revenue of $1.39 billion for calendar year 2023. Over 60% of its net revenue is derived from mobile platforms, of which BGMI is a key contributor from India. In its earnings call on 8 February, the company had said that the sales upturn was “mainly driven by the popularity of BGMI"—signalling India as a key market for the firm.

The PUBG network is one of the world’s most-played action and competitive game platforms. In June this year, market researcher Statista ranked PUBG as the sixth most-streamed game globally, with nearly 2.5 million hours of streaming viewed by e-sports enthusiasts globally every week in June. Annual app charts from market tracker AppMagic ranked the PUBG network as the sixth most-downloaded action game in the world last