The gaming industry and esports in particular, are growing by leaps and bounds. For gamers to flourish and showcase their skills, gaming platforms play a crucial role by hosting tournaments, and one such company is Gamerji.
Gamerji provides a platform for gamers to compete, host matches, communicate and get recognised for their skills. Recently expanded to UAE and Saudi Arabia, the Ahmedabad-based company has received a positive response from the revenue standpoint. The company has seen a growth of six million users and currently caters to around 20-22 game titles on its platform. Apart from organising tournaments, the team’s marketing activities to grow user acquisition and partnering with influencers to promote the platform has helped them become popular.
Talking about surviving in a highly competitive market, Gamerji founder Soham Thacker told Animation Xpress, “The bans and coming back of games like BGMI and Free Fire create a challenging situation for us as these games have a huge fan base. We cater to a large audience so scaling is not an issue for us. But the challenge lies in sustaining and creating strategies and features that make the audience stick around the platform.”
Two factors that have cemented Gamerji’s position in the industry are organising private tournaments and building a community approach on its platform. To create a stronghold in the industry, Gamerji has plans to organise more cross-border tournaments. The company is also planning to launch itself in MENA and Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia over the next couple of quarters. “Our plan is to ideally allow players to compete with gamers from different territories. We aim to set up our footprint as one of the first cross-border tournament platforms,” he revealed.
Gamerji recently partnered with Indian mobile network Vi. The platform’s daily streamings are being hosted on Vi’s app and they have had a viewership of about 2.5 to 3 million. It has also partnered with several other brands and collaborated with companies like Red Bull and Comic Con India. “The brands we partner with, host their events and engage with audiences on our platform. Majority of the sponsors/partners we have worked with are based around the gaming space,” said Thacker
The wide array of games that Gamerji offers keeps its users entertained and hooked to its platform. The platform onboards games once it has reached a certain number of users and popularity in a particular region. “India is a mobile first market for our business, so our target is to organise mobile game tournaments. Whereas, in Saudi Arabia and UAE, apart from mobile games, our focus is PC games like League of Legends, Counter-Strike and others for tournaments.”
Gamerji also works with small and budding publishers on trial basis wherein it allows the publishers to showcase a demo of their game on its platform. If it performs well, the platform onboards it. A recent example of this is Gamerji’s partnership with games such as Cricket Stars and Stumble Guys.
Talking about esports and outlook towards it in India, Thacker mentioned, “In India, esports is still in its nascent stage but there has been a lot of interest in people to pursue esports as a career. When it comes to acceptance and awareness, we are still young. Among the parents too, the awareness about esports’ potential is yet to grow in India.” In his opinion, the ban on BGMI has created a negative impact on people, especially parents.
To create awareness about esports, Gamerji is promoting it as a parallel sport rather than a viable career option. In doing so, they are not only talking about gaming as an option but also promoting other careers based around gaming, like graphic design, events, animation, programming and more.
With BGMI coming into play again, Thacker is hopeful that it’ll stay for good. Since its return, the game has seen an influx of people. “Hopeful times ahead,” concluded Thacker.
