The Indian government had banned over 50 Chinese applications, and more than 200 apps under scrutiny over security issues in India, as a response to what happened between India and China at the Galway valley. This ban has severely impacted the gaming structure in the country, especially in e-sports but the concentration is now on making India ‘aatmnirbhar’ in this sector as well.

Timesnownews.com spoke to one such E-sports club Co-founder and Business Development head to understand in layman’s terms, the impact of it. Ishaan Arya explains, “The Chinese app ban has certainly caused a lot of uncertainty within the Indian esports ecosystem in particular; mainly due to the fact that a lot of the growth and investments in India are based around PUBG Mobile & Mobile Esports. This, however, creates an opportunity for the likes of Garena Free Fire and Call of Duty Mobile to increase their efforts in India and corner the market. We currently operate largely in the PC space where we don’t expect any drastic action or impact on business.”

Apart from the Chinese App ban, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic too has had an effect on the gaming sector. As Ishan further elaborated, “COVID-19 has been challenging for all industries, gaming included however Esports has pivoted and adapted extremely well to evolving circumstances and continues to grow at an exponential pace.”

The ban comes in at a time when audiences have limited options in terms of entertainment, paving the way for increased participation, viewership and engagement in esports.

The gaming sector recently got a boost when Dream11, one of the leading online fantasy gaming companies won the sponsorship for IPL this year.