Chang Byung-gyu, chairman of Krafton, met personally with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to formalise the South Korean gaming company's commitment to deepening its investment in India. The encounter was more than a routine business call: it marked an unusual moment in which the leader of a Korean gaming firm sat down with the head of the world's most populous nation to discuss a strategic partnership.

Why India is central to Krafton's global ambitions

India is already indispensable to Krafton's global strategy. Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), the company's flagship title, has accumulated over 100 million downloads since its launch in 2021, effectively dominating the country's mobile gaming market. India's base of smartphone gamers surpassed roughly 500 million in 2024, and market research firms Luminar and RedSeer project the market will be worth $6 billion by 2027.

The growth story is about more than sheer population size. A median age of 28, the proliferation of cheap mobile data plans, and the rapid rollout of 5G infrastructure are together driving a qualitative shift in gaming consumption. Rising rates of in-app purchases and surging e-sports participation underline the point.

Where geopolitics meets commerce

Analysts are broadly agreed that the meeting with Modi was anything but ceremonial. The Indian government, under its "Atmanirbhar Bharat" (self-reliant India) policy, is actively courting foreign direct investment in digital and technology sectors. Since 2023, it has designated the gaming industry as a pillar of the creative economy, expanding support funds for gaming start-ups and broadening tax incentives accordingly.

Krafton has already deployed considerable capital into India's start-up ecosystem. Since establishing a dedicated India investment fund in 2021, the company has backed dozens of local gaming, fintech, and edtech start-ups. The expectation is that this week's meeting will catalyse a further expansion in the scale and scope of that investment.

Lessons from a turbulent history

Krafton's journey in India has not been without serious setbacks. In 2020, amid a border dispute with China, the Indian government banned more than 200 apps with Chinese connections — including the original Battlegrounds Mobile. Krafton restructured its publishing arrangement with Tencent, established a dedicated Indian subsidiary, and spent more than a year rebuilding before returning as BGMI in 2021. A further temporary suspension followed in 2022, though the company eventually resolved the matter through direct engagement with Indian regulators.

That experience reshaped Krafton's thinking. Rather than treating India as simply a revenue opportunity, the company made trust-building with local authorities a cornerstone of its strategy — a logic that explains why the chairman himself, rather than a regional executive, sought a meeting at the prime ministerial level.

Joining the queue of global suitors

Pledging investment off the back of a meeting with a top Indian leader has become standard practice for the world's largest technology companies. Apple's chief executive Tim Cook met Modi in 2023 and committed to expanding Indian manufacturing. Elon Musk held direct talks with the prime minister's office over a proposed Tesla factory. Samsung has announced factory expansions and R&D investments in explicit coordination with the Modi government to secure a favourable operating environment.

Krafton is, in effect, the first Korean gaming company to join this cohort. It is a measure of how far the industry has travelled diplomatically. India's e-sports market has grown to roughly $300 million as of 2025, and legislative discussions are under way to grant e-sports official recognition as a competitive sport.

The harder work: building a local ecosystem

Analysts caution that sustainable success in India will require more than investment pledges. "Foreign companies that want a durable position in the Indian gaming market need to cultivate developers and creators, not just consumers," says Rahul Goswami, a gaming industry analyst. Industry observers also speculate that Krafton may move towards acquiring Indian game developers or establishing co-development arrangements.

For the Indian government, the prospect of expanded investment aligns neatly with its own priorities: job creation for young people and the accumulation of domestic technology capabilities. The gaming sector's growing demand for developers, operators, and marketing professionals offers one avenue for absorbing the large annual output of India's IT graduates — a convergence of interests that makes the partnership mutually appealing.

The strategic horizon: India as a second home

Krafton is accelerating a structural shift away from its Korea-centric model, with India emerging as what amounts to a second headquarters. The Modi meeting is, in this reading, the public announcement of that transition. Should Krafton build out a diversified portfolio — developing original Indian intellectual property, investing in data centres, and expanding e-sports leagues — it could evolve from a single game publisher into a foundational player in India's broader digital entertainment infrastructure.

For the Korean gaming industry as a whole, Krafton's Indian venture may come to represent a paradigm shift: from exporting content to building local ecosystems. Risks remain. The possibility of renewed regulatory disruption has not disappeared, and Chinese gaming companies continue to seek ways to re-enter the Indian market through indirect routes. Managing government relations and localisation simultaneously, with precision, will be the true test of Krafton's ambitions.