The online gaming sector continues to flash around 50,000-60,000 open roles
| Photo Credit:
Sabrina Bracher
When hiring companies had estimated the real-money gaming (RMG) ban to affect nearly 2 lakh jobs in India’s gaming sector, many had voiced the rhetoric “where will this workforce go?” Roughly five months since, the industry has responded by retaining existing talent and ramping up hiring within alternative e-gaming segments such as game development studios and IP-related jobs to navigate the newly regulated space.
India’s online gaming ecosystem has kept hiring demand high with core development game roles taking the lion’s share of the demand. The sector continues to flash around 50,000-60,000 open roles, Sarbojit Mallick, Co-founder of Instahyre, told businessline citing jobs posted in their database. Core game development such as Unity/Unreal developers, backend engineers, 3D artists, designers, accounted for 70-80 per cent of total open positions, as Indian studios shift toward higher-end and AAA-quality titles.
Meanwhile, esports-driven community roles such as tournament managers, community managers, content creators, gameplay analysts accounted for 5-10 per cent of total positions, indicating fast growth. Marketing, in-game monetisation, and community engagement roles reported steady growth, tied to live-streaming ops, audience retention and global publishing ambitions.
“We think total gaming employment in India might grow around 60-70 per cent by end-2026, despite the impact of the real-money gaming ban,” said Mallick.
Rather than discouraging participation, the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, clearly demarcated e-games from RMG and bolstered trust among gamers, as per a national survey done by JetSynthesys and YouGov. It showed that 75 per cent of Indian esports players viewing the sector as a viable career option, while 56 per cent of players expressed interest in roles like coaches, analysts, team managers or event organisers, etc.
“This shows that like any other professional sporting ecosystem, there is a greater interest and a big opportunity. Many athletes are becoming streamers, entertain their communities, build their audiences, to monetise their talent beyond playing the sport,” said Rajan Navani, Founder & CEO of Jetsynthesys.
Retaining talent
According to Aditya Narayan Mishra – MD and CEO of CIEL HR, the shutdowns in August 2025 were largely limited to RMG companies, leading to a temporary hiring pause in that segment.
As it turns out, some of the workforce managed to be reabsorbed in other companies. After the ban, Felicity Games gained a new Head of Engineering and Head of Analytics from one of the top RMG companies.
“This is talent which otherwise would have been incredibly difficult to find. In that sense, the ban was a great thing for other forms of gaming industries to thrive and globally,” Anurag Choudhary, Founder and CEO of Felicity, said. Similarly, DreamSports in December said it will retain all its talent even after the ban and redistribute employees among its seven other platforms.
However, for the workforce, the sting from the sudden RMG ban remains. After speaking to some of the talent in the gaming sector, Meet Shah, Founder and CEO, BeBetta, told businessline how some people don’t want to get into gaming any longer but look at a different industry.
“It has been a very difficult time for a lot of these people who had to be let go because of the ban. We have to look at from their standpoint as well. Overnight, your job is gone. It leaves a mark,” he said.
Perhaps considering such incidents, individuals in the JetSynthesys survey listed further government recognition, access to career counselling and mentorship as clear priorities to further strengthen the sector. For now, stakeholders remain optimistic for the job prospects in e-gaming.
Published on January 21, 2026
