Game streaming the next job career

Abhijeet Singh, a second-year engineering student from West Bengal's Naihati city, plans to drop out of college and turn into a full-time game streamer, which will fetch him dual benefits - an income and recreation. Live-streaming gaming, which includes video games as well, has turned into an industry worth around $1 billion in India, and is expected to touch $5 billion by 2025.

Recent reports suggest that the industry could scale up to $13 billion worldwide by then. It has been over two years since Singh started game streaming (when he watched it on YouTube), and he now streams on Rooter, India's homegrown game streaming app.

"Unlike YouTube, you can gain an audience on Rooter very easily and fast. We just need to hold that audience with our creativity and content," he says. The live-gaming streamer earns nearly Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 a month. "I am thinking of dropping out of college and want a career in content creation," he adds. Platforms like Rooter offer multiple revenue sources, including sponsorships and advertisements, which add to a player's income.

There are also 'Super Chats' through which the audience can pay the player if they wish. "YouTube takes 40 per cent of that revenue, but Rooter gives you as much as 90 per cent," says Singh, or 'the Singh Babu', his username.

Or take the case of Udaipur-based Mansha Kunwar Rathore, ('Gaming with Laila'), who took up gaming as a career when she lost her job during the Covid pandemic. "During the lockdown I started playing games to pass the time, but then realised that one can earn too, and began my career as a gamer. I started with YouTube, got a good response and also secured brand endorsements," she says. Mansha has 2.1 million followers on YouTube.

With such a huge follower base on YouTube, she was then approached by Glance, the lock screen platform from unicorn InMobi, and she streams on both platforms. She did not disclose how much she makes in a month, but reckons her salary is similar to that of a chartered accountant.

Games streaming is a huge category internationally, but in India it began making a dent only when PUB-G was launched around 2018 and gamers got the flavour of live multiplayer gaming. Cheaper smartphones and data packages fuelled the demand. While YouTube continues to be the largest platform for user-generated content, the surge in the number of gamers has given rise to local streaming platforms like Rooter, Loco, Glance and Turnip.