2025 Tech3 Rewind | A tough reset for actual cash gaming, a brand new script for leisure

India’s gaming sector hit a tough reset in 2025. Real-money gaming (RMG), which accounts for almost all of the nation’s gaming revenues, was crushed by a sweeping new on-line gaming legislation that outright banned it. 

• Moneycontrol carefully tracked the chaos that adopted: from a swift collapse and widespread cost-cutting to a determined scramble to determine what comes subsequent

Meanwhile, within the broader leisure house, new codecs like microdramas gained fast adoption whereas filmmakers explored newer distribution channels. 

• At the identical time, studios started formulating their AI methods because the know-how reshapes the way forward for storytelling

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Our must-read tales of the yr

• The legislation despatched shockwaves via the $3.5 billion RMG business, blindsiding firms with a transfer one noticed coming. Shortly after the ban, Harsh Jain, co-founder and CEO of Dream Sports, the guardian firm of Dream11 and arguably the most important participant within the house, described it as an “unexpected knockout punch”. In an interview with us, he mentioned the transfer worn out 95% of the group’s revenues and all its earnings, whilst he insisted he stays “a delusional optimist.” Dream Sports has since repositioned Dream11 as a sports entertainment platform and split into eight ‘startups’, every with its personal management.

• In the months that adopted, RMG platforms laid off over 2,500 staff as revenues dried up and corporations scrambled to outlive within the new actuality. Firms that minimize jobs embody Head Digital Works (A23), Gameskraft, Games24x7, Mobile Premier League (MPL), Nazara Technologies-backed Baazi Games (Moonshine Technology), and Junglee Games. Bharti Airtel scion Kavin Bharti Mittal shut down his 13-year-old startup, Hike. Startups like Zupee and WinZO forayed into a spread of shopper web classes, together with microdramas, digital gold, astrology, and microlearning, amongst others. Read our year-end recap of India’s RMG business.

• South Korean gaming large Krafton can be trying past gaming for its subsequent massive India funding. It is launching a Rs 6,000 crore India-focused funding fund in partnership with fellow Korean corporations Mirae Asset and Naver to again startups poised to turn into unicorns in areas equivalent to AI, fintech, digital content material, and logistics. The BGMI maker additionally made its first acquisition within the nation, shopping for over 75% stake in Nautilus Mobile, the Pune-based developer of the Real Cricket franchise, for Rs 118 crore in March.

• Turning to leisure, Google-owned YouTube is experimenting with a “meaningful distribution alternative” for manufacturing homes and studios, India MD Gunjan Soni advised us in an interview. A key pilot was Aamir Khan’s Sitaare Zameen Par, which debuted on YouTube as a rental throughout India and 38 world markets, bypassing streaming platforms. Soni, who joined YouTube earlier this yr to guide its India operations, mentioned the platform can be sharpening its concentrate on dwell content material and creator-led purchasing initiatives.

• Studios like Abundantia Entertainment, makers of fashionable collection Breathe and flicks like Toilet, have even opened a brand new AI division to develop a slate of six movies with expectations of the AI division contributing to about 35% of the agency’s complete revenues in 3 years. Founder Vikram Malhotra insists that is no passing fad.

• Speaking of brief content material, Indian audiences noticed a microdrama increase this yr, with platforms providing bite-sized content material attracting vital investor curiosity. Moneycontrol reported that micro-drama OTT platforms raised $44 million throughout six rounds within the first half of 2025 versus $28 million raised throughout 5 offers in all of 2024.

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