Lately, BGMI has regularly advanced into one of many greatest franchises in India. With thousands and thousands of concurrent gamers each month, the favored battle royale has taken the nation by storm, whether or not by the limitless occasions or the power-packed LAN occasions.
We not too long ago had the chance to talk with Srinjoy Das, Director of Advertising and marketing and Product Administration at KRAFTON India, about KRAFTON’s development and evolution, alongside the rise in reputation of player-created recreation modes.
Srinjoy Das on why BGMI is changing into greater than only a recreation, the way forward for WOW, and wholesome gaming habits
Q: You say BGMI has stopped pondering of itself as only a recreation. What was the second that satisfied KRAFTON this transition had already occurred?
Srinjoy: Truthfully, there was not one single second. Relatively, it was the fruits of watching participant behaviour change proper earlier than our eyes. 5 years in the past, folks got here to BGMI to drop in, struggle for a hen dinner, and sign off. What modified every little thing was seeing gamers spend severe time inside experiences that don’t seem like conventional BGMI in any respect.
The quantity that actually made it click on for us was particular person player-made WOW maps crossing tens of thousands and thousands of performs every. To place that in perspective, a YouTube view is a three-second choice. To play a WOW map, it’s a must to persuade your folks, obtain it, and spend 15–20 minutes in it. Doing that doesn’t occur for a recreation, however for a platform with an invested participant base.
Q: Might player-created experiences in the future turn out to be official BGMI recreation modes?
Srinjoy: Completely, and I’d go additional than that. A few of the greatest issues in gaming historical past got here precisely like this. Dust_2 is the most-played Counter-Strike map within the recreation’s historical past, and that was user-made. Counter-Strike itself started as a Half-Life mod. Fantastic issues occur once you hand gamers the facility to create one thing fantastic.
For us, user-generated content material is changing into one in all BGMI’s core pillars. We watch carefully and monitor what resonates with the playerbase. If a creator-made expertise exhibits sturdy engagement and replayability, there may be each probability it influences official content material down the road. Our job is to construct an ecosystem the place the very best concept wins, irrespective of who it comes from.
Q: What does a profitable replace seem like past obtain numbers?
Srinjoy: A profitable replace is one that’s nonetheless alive weeks after launch. We all know it really works when gamers are nonetheless discovering issues, speaking about them, and creating content material round them weeks after they first dived in. I take a look at how lengthy folks keep, how usually they return, and whether or not an replace earns a spot locally’s dialog.
An important instance could be the Naruto replace. Individuals are enjoying it exhausting as a result of they know will probably be passed by October. Is that wholesome FOMO? Certain. However the actual sign is when gamers are actively evaluating methods and alluring their mates to make the very best of a limited-time expertise.
Q: 5 years in the past, success was measured in downloads and participant rely. At this time, what metrics outline success for BGMI?
Srinjoy: 5 years in the past, we have been constructing an viewers, so downloads and participant rely have been the pure scoreboard. We’re proud to have crossed 260 million, however the dialog has moved nicely previous installs.
At this time it’s about depth. Are gamers coming again usually? Are they transferring throughout the entire platform — Battle Royale, creator experiences, collaborations, and the social areas? Are they contributing, not simply consuming? The truest measure of success for me is easy: is BGMI a spot folks select to spend their time, night time after night time, the way in which they’d select to fulfill mates someplace? When the reply is sure, every little thing else follows.
Q: You talked about that replace selections are formed by participant habits. Are you able to share an instance the place neighborhood suggestions straight modified a deliberate function?
Srinjoy: The clearest one is Erangel: Historical Secrets and techniques. We’d retired it for some time, and the demand for its return was relentless — our OG gamers wouldn’t let it go throughout each channel we’ve got. So we introduced it again. And I wish to be sincere about what that really takes: our recreation engine has advanced a lot over the past two and a half years that bringing an outdated mode again isn’t a copy-paste. It’s actual work in QA and testing to rebuild it for a way the sport runs right now. We did it anyway, as a result of the neighborhood requested — and that’s a case the place suggestions didn’t simply fine-tune one thing, it straight put a function again into the sport.
We construct loads of issues this fashion. To be candid about our course of, we construct options foundation the YouTube remark part. It appears like an odd method to run a recreation, however we go straight to the place our gamers are speaking, learn what they really need, and most of our greatest concepts begin proper there. Even one thing just like the Kurama Boss Battle within the present Naruto replace is tuned round what we all know our gamers take pleasure in — a real problem they’ll examine notes on, with Kurama in several states and a two-phase encounter so no two fights really feel the identical.
Q: India is extremely numerous. How do you resolve which festivals, languages, or cultural moments turn out to be a part of BGMI?
Srinjoy: We begin with what already issues to Indian gamers, not what we expect ought to matter. Cricket is the apparent one — it’s not a sport right here, it’s an emotion, which is why partnerships with CSK and KKR, or working with Hardik Pandya, land the way in which they do.
Past that, we lean into moments that already carry that means — Independence Day, Friendship Day, Raksha Bandhan — and we design these to really feel rewarding and accessible, not like a grind. And on the creator facet, we work with personalities who have already got deeply engaged Indian communities. The precept is all the time the identical: BGMI ought to replicate the tradition our gamers are already dwelling in, fairly than importing one thing and hoping it sticks. From day one, this firm has had one fixed — India first, India first, India first.
Q: BGMI has collaborated with manufacturers starting from Ferrari to Naruto and Spider-Man. What determines whether or not a collaboration is smart for Indian gamers?
Srinjoy: Each collaboration begins with one query: Will our gamers genuinely love this? Not “is it an enormous title” — will they like it?
We all know the classes that work for our neighborhood. Vehicles have all the time been sturdy for us — Porsche, Mahindra, Royal Enfield, and now Ferrari, which gamers have been asking for actually for years. Anime is the opposite massive one — Dragon Ball, Jujutsu Kaisen, and now Naruto.
After which there’s authenticity, which for me is the entire recreation. After we usher in an IP, we obsess over getting it proper. For Naruto, we recreated the whole Hidden Leaf Village inside Erangel — the ramen store, the rooftops, all of it. For Spider-Man, we introduced in Peter Parker’s condominium, and we handled Aunt Could’s memorial with actual respect — you’ll be able to’t have folks gunning one another down in a spot like that. That stage of care is strictly why followers belief us with the issues they love, and it’s why these three IPs in a single season are touchdown the way in which they’re.
Q: Many gamers dream of changing into creators. How does BGMI help aspiring map makers past merely giving them instruments?
Srinjoy: Instruments are the straightforward half. What issues is whether or not a creator can truly see their work attain folks — and develop from it.
We’ve bought tens of hundreds of creators in India constructing inside WOW, and particular person maps pulling tens of thousands and thousands of performs. That form of visibility for user-generated content material is genuinely uncommon wherever on this planet. However past the platform, initiatives just like the KRAFTON India Gaming Incubator (KIGI) put actual mentorship, funding, and steering behind rising builders. The dream we’re constructing towards is a transparent path — somebody builds a success map in BGMI, and that turns into step one to a profession in recreation growth, not only a weekend interest.
Q: Accountable gaming has turn out to be a significant dialog in India. How do you steadiness participant engagement with wholesome gaming habits?
Srinjoy: We’ve put among the strictest guardrails within the business in place, and I imply strict. As soon as a participant crosses six hours of playtime in a day, that’s it — entry is paused till the clock resets at midnight. I don’t know of one other recreation on this nation that does that. For gamers flagged as minors, spending is capped as nicely. And we’ve got bought neighborhood methods for poisonous behaviour, all of it complying with the regulatory framework.
However right here’s what I truly imagine: with Gen Z, consciousness solely works if it’s partaking, not preachy. If I present up like a grandfather wagging a finger — “don’t share your passwords” — they’ll nod and ignore me. So we did an entire marketing campaign on account-sharing on April Idiot’s Day, performed with actual humour, as a result of sharing your BGMI account usually means sharing your Fb login too, and that’s genuinely harmful.
This strategy received us two awards at Cannes, and extra importantly, it was appreciated by dad and mom and by the authorities accountable for holding minors secure. We additionally launched BGMI Profession Mode to indicate households that gaming can result in actual careers, not simply display time. The reality is, that is about steadiness: well being and gaming. That’s a message gamers reply to once you deal with them like adults.
Q: BGMI’s first 5 years have been about constructing India’s greatest cellular gaming neighborhood. If the subsequent 5 years are about constructing India’s greatest creator ecosystem, what selections will KRAFTON need to make to get there?
Srinjoy: The most important choice we’ve already made: treating user-generated content material as core to the platform, not a bolt-on function. Every part else follows from that.
A 12 months in the past, we set out on a journey to show BGMI from a recreation right into a platform – a spot the place your folks reside, the place you create, and the place you belong. We’re on 12 months two now, and the proof is all over the place: over 50,000 creators constructing maps which might be performed tens of thousands and thousands of occasions, a Playing cards system that boasts of playing cards stuffed with India-themed playing cards and easter eggs, and an X-Swimsuit mechanic the place missions may be accomplished for development.
The 4.5 replace is that imaginative and prescient at full scale. With India’s first options and IPs working seamlessly with iconic World IPs working in tandem with probably the most vibrant map-making ecosystem, we’re turning India’s most beloved recreation into its most beloved platform.
From right here, it’s about funding in three instructions – higher creation instruments, an actual creator economic system by issues like WOW Tokens, so constructing can truly be rewarding, and extra alternatives for creators to construct across the massive IPs and cultural themes gamers love.
However the mindset shift is the actual factor. For years, the concepts got here from us. Within the subsequent 5 years, the very best concepts ought to come from the neighborhood, and our job is to be the platform that carries these concepts to thousands and thousands of gamers.
Q: What’s one function that completely embodies BGMI’s evolution over the previous 5 years?
Srinjoy: WOW, definitely. 5 years in the past, BGMI was drop in, struggle for a hen dinner, sign off. That was it. At this time, you’ll be able to nonetheless do precisely that — however you too can step right into a world somebody locally constructed, play a format that didn’t exist final month, and spend a night in one thing that appears nothing like conventional Battle Royale.
WOW is the entire journey in a single function: from a single recreation to a platform the place creativity, neighborhood, and gameplay all reside collectively.
Q: How a lot of BGMI’s roadmap is deliberate years prematurely versus reacting to participant habits?
Srinjoy: Each, and so they’re not in battle. Large updates and collaborations are deliberate nicely forward. You can not ship one thing at this scale off the cuff. However right here’s the factor folks miss: the most important soccer franchise on this planet refreshes every year, the most important role-playing recreation each 9 years, most shooters each couple of years.
On PC and console, we successfully flip BGMI into a brand new recreation each two months. We don’t get the posh of asking 260 million gamers to take a seat with the identical content material for six months. So even our deliberate roadmap runs on tight, roughly two-month cycles.
And inside all that planning, we’re continually studying participant suggestions and behavior, which shapes every little thing from steadiness to what we construct subsequent. The roadmap offers us course, and our gamers resolve the way it truly performs out.
Additionally learn: “50% technique and 50% belief”: In dialog with BGIS 2026 champions, casters, and officers (Unique)
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Edited by Sayendra Basu
