From BGMI to Hanuman Ansh: Brands find new playground in ₹9,200 crore gaming market

A Mahindra electric SUV driving through a virtual battleground, a Sting Energy drink appearing as a power-up and popular entertainment characters turning into playable gaming properties point to a changing advertising opportunity in India's gaming industry. Brands are no longer looking at gaming merely as another platform to buy digital impressions. They are increasingly exploring ways to become part of the gaming experience itself.

This shift is opening up a new commercial proposition for gaming companies, advertisers and entertainment businesses. While gaming platforms are building advertising infrastructure to monetise their growing audiences, brands are experimenting with product integrations, interactive campaigns and collaborations with established intellectual properties (IPs).

Entertainment producers, meanwhile, are extending television and film properties into gaming, creating additional touchpoints for brand partnerships.

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The FICCI-EY Media and Entertainment Report 2026 states that advertising emerged as a key monetisation lever for video gaming, with advertising revenues growing 12% in 2025. It projects video gaming revenues to reach ₹9,200 crore by 2028, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13%.

The Game Developer Association of India (GDAI), in its GameDev Outlook 2026 report released at the India Game Developer Conference (IGDC) in Chennai, estimates that India's video gaming market generated $1.04 billion in revenue in 2025, registering 14.8% year-on-year growth and reaching 511 million players.

For advertisers, the appeal lies in the opportunity to reach an audience that actively participates in content rather than passively consumes it. Gaming allows brands to build associations through repeated interactions, product discovery and experiences within virtual environments, potentially creating longer-term recall than a conventional advertising exposure.

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Seddharth Merrotra, Head of Business Development at KRAFTON India, said brands are increasingly shifting their marketing strategies from traditional media towards gaming because it offers access to a more engaged and interactive audience.

"Gaming allows brands to connect with younger consumers who will become decision-makers in their households and purchasing journeys over the next five years. There is also a long-term brand recall opportunity. A consumer who encounters a brand in their favourite game today may remember that association five years later and be more inclined to try the product. This is the kind of value that gaming can create beyond immediate advertising outcomes," he said.

From brand placements to advertising infrastructure

The growing interest from advertisers is prompting gaming companies to build dedicated advertising infrastructure to convert player engagement into a more organised advertising business.

KRAFTON Ad Platform India (KADP India), the Indian subsidiary of South Korea-based advertising technology company NEPTUNE, has officially launched its advertising technology business in India.

Established in April 2026 following KRAFTON Inc.'s acquisition of a majority stake in NEPTUNE in April 2025, KADP India will focus on bringing NEPTUNE's advertising technology and operational capabilities to the Indian market.

As part of its India entry, KADP India has partnered with KRAFTON to manage advertising operations for Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI). Its mandate includes advertising inventory planning and design, campaign delivery and optimisation, and operational management through NEPTUNE's proprietary technology platform and local team.

The development indicates that gaming companies are beginning to build the technology and operational capabilities required to manage advertising inventory, deliver campaigns and optimise brand spending within games.

BGMI has already been experimenting with brand partnerships across automobiles, FMCG, technology and lifestyle categories. Partnerships with Mahindra and Hero MotoCorp have brought vehicles such as the BE 6 electric SUV and Xtreme motorcycles into the game as playable assets. PepsiCo's Sting Energy became the game's official in-game energy drink, appearing as a power-up for players. Other associations have included Dolby Atmos and realme.

These collaborations also extend beyond the game through co-branded merchandise, retail activations, contests and digital campaigns, allowing brands to connect virtual engagement with real-world consumer experiences.

Merrotra said there are two distinct opportunities for brands in gaming: interactive brand integrations and conventional advertising or product placement within games.

"We are currently testing advertising formats to understand how users respond. BGMI has traditionally been a free-to-play, level-playing-field experience, and we do not want to introduce advertising in a manner that irritates consumers. We have started with a limited number of advertising exposures, and the focus is on understanding user reactions," he said.

He added that interactive integrations require considerable time because the company undertakes extensive quality checks across devices and operating systems to ensure that the experience works seamlessly for every user.

This creates a distinction between selling advertising inventory and developing brand experiences. While conventional advertisements can be introduced through designated placements, interactive integrations require brands to fit into the game's mechanics and retain the interest of players.

Entertainment IPs add another layer to brand monetisation

The advertising opportunity is also expanding as entertainment businesses take established characters beyond television and cinema and into gaming. For IP owners, this creates additional revenue streams through game downloads, in-app purchases and advertising, while giving brands opportunities to associate with familiar characters.

Gada Electronics, the mobile game based on the television show Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah, completed two years on October 30, 2026, and has crossed 20 million downloads, according to producer Asit Kumarr Modi.

The game follows a free-to-play model, generating revenue through in-app purchases from players who want to progress faster and advertisements from those who prefer not to spend money. According to the company, revenue is almost evenly divided between the two streams, with roughly half coming from in-app purchases and the other half from advertising.

The company said the game is currently earning more than it spends on growth. Its blended return on advertising spend (ROAS), across paid and organic players, stood at approximately 1.5x over the preceding 30 days.

Modi said a popular character can attract players, but the gaming experience determines whether they stay.

"One of the key learnings from our journey is that while a popular character may draw people to a game, the gaming experience itself has to give them a reason to return. Gada Electronics, which completed two years on October 30, 2026, has crossed 20 million downloads. This demonstrates the importance of game quality, smooth performance, continuous innovation and multilingual access in building player engagement. In-app purchases also remain an important part of the business model," he said.

He added that established characters could find new audiences across formats and generations, citing franchises such as Aladdin, Pokémon and Spider-Man as examples of properties that have built lasting recognition across platforms.

For advertisers, such properties offer an additional layer of audience familiarity. Rather than building awareness around an unfamiliar gaming title, brands can potentially associate with characters that already have an established following.

The brand integration challenge

The expansion of entertainment IPs into gaming is also raising the importance of how brands are integrated into the underlying content. For producers, the commercial opportunity cannot come at the cost of the property's identity.

Hanuman Ansh is moving beyond cinema through an exclusive worldwide partnership with nCore Games. nCore subsidiary Dot9 Games will develop and publish three titles for PC, mobile and console platforms.

Namrata Singh, Producer of Hanuman Ansh-First Film, said the strategy is to build the IP around Lord Hanuman, which has recognition across geographies, languages and cultural affiliations.

"Hanuman is one of the most universally recognised and widely loved characters, cutting across geographies, languages and cultural affiliations. The world we have created lends itself to storytelling across multiple formats and markets," she said.

Singh said gaming offers a language-agnostic and geography-agnostic opportunity for the property, with mobile being the natural starting point given India's large smartphone user base.

"Our strategy has to be mobile-first because India has a very large mobile phone user base, with practically every household having multiple phones. Gaming on mobile is therefore a natural extension of the IP," she said.

On brand partnerships, Singh said the film has only one association, with Haldiram, because of the inherent connection with the name Ram. She said brand collaborations must have a genuine connection with the underlying property.

"When you are in the business of empathy transfer, which is what films and games essentially are, brand associations must have that empathy built into their design. It cannot simply be a case of a brand investing money and expecting visibility. There has to be a genuine connect," she said.

The industry's advertising opportunity, therefore, rests on two complementary developments: gaming platforms building the infrastructure to sell and optimise advertising, and entertainment IP owners creating properties that brands can meaningfully associate with. 

The next phase of growth will depend on whether gaming can translate its highly engaged audiences into sustained advertising budgets, without turning the experience into another cluttered digital advertising environment.