The games which are ensuring Mobile Esports has a potentially amazing future in India

The ₹1 crore PUBG Mobile India Series was a testament towards the rapid growth of mobile esports within India. The traditional gaming community around the world swears by not playing on mobile, and consider it "not competitive enough" and that they can never be an esport. Mobile games have defied this ideology by hosting some of the biggest esports tournaments in history with viewership as high as some PC games.

The preferred platform for gaming in India is mobile. This is because of a variety of reasons. Everyone has a mobile, and most cannot afford a decent PC or a console for gaming. Some people do not feel the need to buy these devices when they are getting the same experience on their hand-held smartphone. Internet and data is also a contributing factor for most gamers being concentrated on mobile.

So which are the games that are making mobile esports happen within the country?

#1 PUBG Mobile

A still from the PUBG Mobile India Series 2019.

Of course, this list would have been incomplete without the widely loved battle royale - PUBG Mobile. The game deserves a lot of credit for igniting the mobile gaming scene in India. The game has millions of players from India and is undoubtedly the most played game in the country.

Tencent, the game's publishers are also supporting the scene in India by backing up companies to host tournaments within the country. Hence we have seen some of the biggest esports tournaments in India thanks to this game.

The PUBG Mobile India Series currently has the title for the most prize pool by a single esports tournament in India. The ₹1 crore prize pool was shared between the finalists who played at the G.M.C Balayogi Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad. The game has a very bright future in India and will be the driving force of esports within the country.

#2 Lords Mobile

Lords Mobile is a real-time strategy MMO game.

Lords Mobile is a very in-depth strategy game developed by IGG. The game has over 100 million downloads on the Play Store. The game promises for a bright future as a competitive game in India.

The game has over 15 million downloads from India alone. It has thousands of daily Indian players and has a fast-growing community in India. It is highly competitive and requires a lot of teamwork in the form of guilds (similar to clans in PUBG Mobile) which makes it more fun to play with as a team.

Each guild has over 15 members and competing against other guilds by analyzing their troops, heroes, and formation and then acting accordingly as a team adds to the depth of the game.

The game has had events within India in the past. A community meeting for the game was recently held at Playmax Cafe, Hyderabad. Over 30 people from two competitive Lords Mobile guilds in Hyderabad participated in the event and in-game rewards and goodies were given out as prizes.

The gathering was organized by Go Live Gaming Studios which has plans to conduct similar events in a more competitive aspect within India. They will be hosting local and then national level online and offline tournaments in the coming months. As the title's entry into esports is relatively new, you can also form a guild with some of your friends and practice for the upcoming tournaments of the game.

#3 Clash Royale and Brawl Stars

Clash Royale has had many tournaments in India in the past.

The card-based multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game has been around as an esports title in India for a while now. Clash Royale has had a lot of offline LAN events within the country as well. The game is backed by ESL India which hosts a lot of tournaments for the game - online and offline, throughout the year. Lakhs of rupees have been handed out as prize money for the tournament.

Brawl Stars is another emerging esports title in India. The recently launched game has been developed by the same people who brought Clash Royale - Supercell. The game has a thriving community in India and its very fun to watch. It is inevitable that the game, with Supercell and ESL backing it will go on to become a big mobile esports title.

Brawl Stars is a competitive MOBA game.

Brawl Stars may also replace Clash Royale at the upcoming season of the ESL India Premiership.

#4 Free Fire and Guns of Boom

Free Fire still has a large player base in India.

Before PUBG, Free Fire was the most popular battle royale game in India. Even though PUBG did affect the player base of the Garena developed game, it still has a very dedicated and large gaming community in India.

The game has recently starting diving into esports with the first Free Fire World Cup to be held on 7 April 2019 at Bangkok, Thailand. The tournament has a prize pool of $100K and we will also be seeing an Indian team at the world cup. The winners of the Free Fire SEA India Invitationals which was an India exclusive tournament will be heading to Bangkok for the World Cup. The game will undoubtedly be having a number of tournaments for India in the future as well.

Guns of Boom is a first-person shooter (FPS) for mobile.

Guns of Boom is another game with an esports presence in India. The game is directly backed by ESL and has a regional league for South East Asia which is completely dominated by Indian Guns of Boom teams. It frequently has international offline events as well.

The upcoming Guns of Boom Pro Series to be held in Texas, USA will feature an Indian team as well. The tournament will be held on April 13 and will be having a prize pool of $40K.

Guns of Boom also organizes weekly tournaments for India and South East Asia which have $1K (over 69K rupees!) as prize money every week. The game is expanding its player base within India every day and promises for more tournaments in the future.