Content, streamers, and partnerships: Key elements of BGMI’s marketing strategy

A quick glance through KRAFTON India Battlegrounds Mobile India s (BGMI) YouTube channel will let you know that the game is quite heavy on content marketing. There are podcasts, music videos, tips and tricks, and even special webisodes of new updates- all featuring some top-tier gaming streamers of the country.

The channel itself has more than 5 million subscribers and the videos clock views in millions quite consistently. And why wouldn’t they? The game has more than 199 million downloads in India as of December 2023, and that too after a series of troubles with authorities.

For the unacquainted, South Korean video game publisher Krafton launched BGMI in July 2021. The game quickly rose to fame on the heels of the then-banned and dismissed PUBG (PlayerUnknown's BattleGrounds) Mobile. In 2022, however, BGMI suffered a similar fate. In July, the game was banned in India due to security concerns. The ban lasted till May 2023, when the game reentered the Indian market and continued on its seemingly successful Indian run.?

The battle royale space itself is quite competitive. In India, major games popular in the segment include Garena’s Free Fire with over a billion downloads worldwide, And Call of Duty Mobile which also boasts more than 600 million downloads globally. The India mobile gaming market size reached $2.6 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $9.9 billion by 2032, exhibiting a growth rate (CAGR) of 16.16% during 2024-2032, as per IMARC Group, a market research firm.