Brands plug into India’s ₹9,200 crore gaming market
With 511 million players and a ₹9,200 crore opportunity by 2028, brands are shifting from buying in-game ads to becoming part of the gameplay.
The pitch has changed. Instead of asking how many gamers will see an ad, Indian marketers are starting to ask how their brand can become part of the game. That subtle shift, from purchased attention to owned presence, is pulling automobiles, energy drinks and entertainment characters into title screens and battlegrounds.
01 · From media buying to in-world assets
A Mahindra BE 6 electric SUV now drives through a virtual battleground. Hero MotoCorp’s Xtreme motorcycles appear as playable assets. PepsiCo’s Sting Energy has become the official in-game energy drink in Battlegrounds Mobile India, working as a power-up. Dolby Atmos and realme have added technology cues.
These are not banner placements. They are product integrations designed around gameplay, giving players a reason to touch, use and remember the brand inside an experience they already love.
- Automobiles: Mahindra BE 6 and Hero Xtreme as playable vehicles.
- Beverage: Sting Energy as an in-game power-up.
- Tech: Dolby Atmos and realme associations, extended via merchandise, retail and contests.
02 · The numbers that make this strategic
The FICCI-EY Media and Entertainment Report 2026 projects India’s video gaming revenue at ₹9,200 crore by 2028, a 13% CAGR, with advertising revenue up 12% in 2025. The Game Developer Association of India puts the 2025 market at $1.04 billion, up 14.8% year-on-year, across 511 million players.
Those players are not passively watching. Seddharth Merrotra, Head of Business Development at KRAFTON India, frames the value in long-term memory.
Gaming allows brands to connect with younger consumers who will become decision-makers in their households and purchasing journeys over the next five years. A consumer who encounters a brand in their favourite game today may remember that association five years later.
03 · The infrastructure behind the shift
To convert that attention into advertiser spend, KRAFTON Ad Platform India has been set up to manage advertising for BGMI. Its mandate covers inventory planning, campaign delivery and optimisation through NEPTUNE’s technology. But KRAFTON is being careful with the user experience, starting with a limited number of exposures and testing user response before scaling.
That caution is the strategic point for CMOs: gaming audiences can be lost fast if advertising feels like clutter. The opportunity sits in interactive integrations, not just more ad slots.
04 · Entertainment IPs are the second engine
The same logic is bringing familiar characters into the game. Gada Electronics, built on Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah, crossed 20 million downloads as it completed two years on October 30, 2026. Producer Asit Kumarr Modi notes that revenue is almost evenly split between in-app purchases and advertising, with blended return on ad spend around 1.5x.
For IP-driven projects, fit beats visibility. Hanuman Ansh has partnered with nCore Games, with Dot9 Games developing titles for PC, mobile and console. Producer Namrata Singh says the property has only one brand association, Haldiram, because of the inherent connection with Ram.
When you are in the business of empathy transfer, brand associations must have that empathy built into their design.
05 · What to do about it
The takeaway is not start advertising in games. It is to design for participation. Start with small, testable placements. Match the brand to a mechanic, a character or a moment rather than a media placement. And for entertainment tie-ups, insist on an emotional connection that feels native to the story.
The brands that win will be the ones that enrich the game, not the ones that interrupt it.
Source: Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media
