Krafton is intensifying its strategic push into India. Building on the success of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), the South Korean games developer is now leading with a "Lite" version of its flagship title — optimised for lower-specification devices — in a bid to reach the untapped mass market of a 1.5 billion-strong nation. The move signals something more ambitious than a routine product launch: Krafton wants India to become a central pillar of its global gaming ecosystem.
Why India, and Why Now
The raw numbers are staggering. According to market research firm Lumi, India surpassed 900 million smartphone users in 2024, with more than 500 million playing mobile games. Yet beneath those headline figures lies a structural reality that trips up many global developers. More than 60% of India's smartphone market consists of low-cost, entry-level handsets, and users remain acutely sensitive to data costs. Even the most polished high-end game will struggle to achieve mass adoption if it cannot clear the twin hurdles of device compatibility and data efficiency.
This is precisely the gap Krafton's Lite version is designed to fill. Battlegrounds Mobile Lite significantly reduces graphical demand, shrinks the installation file size, and lowers RAM requirements, enabling smooth performance on mid- and low-range devices. The target audience is India's rural and small-city population — the cohort often referred to in the technology industry as the "next billion users."
BGMI's Track Record Validates the Thesis
Krafton's fixation on India is grounded in hard-won experience. BGMI, launched in 2021, survived a near-fatal blow when the Indian government suspended the service over security concerns linked to its origins — PUBG Mobile had been banned as part of a broader crackdown on Chinese-linked applications. Yet following its relaunch in 2023, BGMI recovered its user base with remarkable speed and has since consistently ranked among the most-downloaded titles on Google Play in India. The game has also established a commanding presence in India's nascent esports scene, and Krafton has reinforced its position through sustained investment in local esports tournaments, a creator ecosystem, and expanded regional-language support.
Industry analysts in India describe Krafton's approach not as mere "localisation" but as something closer to the embedding of an entire local ecosystem. Partnerships with domestic publishers and content creators, India-specific in-game events, and interfaces available in Hindi and other regional languages all point in the same direction.
Competition: A Crowded but Tilted Field
India is no one's exclusive preserve. Call of Duty Mobile, backed by Tencent, and various battle-royale titles from NetEase compete fiercely for the same audience, as do a growing number of homegrown Indian gaming start-ups. Paradoxically, however, New Delhi's regulatory restrictions on Chinese applications have constrained Tencent's ability to operate freely in the market — handing Krafton an opening it has been quick to exploit.
Monetisation, nonetheless, remains a formidable challenge. India's average revenue per user (ARPU) is widely estimated at roughly one-tenth of the equivalent figure in the United States. This is why Krafton is prioritising the construction of a large, loyal user base over near-term revenue extraction. The underlying strategic logic runs as follows: use the Lite version to widen the top of the funnel; deepen engagement through esports and content; then, as India's economy grows and consumer spending power rises, convert today's free or low-spending players into tomorrow's premium customers.
Lessons From China: A Familiar Playbook
Krafton's India strategy bears a striking resemblance to the "localisation plus ecosystem-building" formula that global games companies deployed when entering China. Blizzard's partnership with NetEase — which involved local servers and culturally adapted content — and Tencent's own success in reaching rural Chinese users through lightweight, low-specification titles are the most frequently cited precedents. India, however, is considerably more complex than China was. It is not a single-language, single-culture market. Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, and dozens of other languages coexist alongside distinct regional cultural codes. How precisely Krafton navigates that diversity will be the real test of its ambitions.
Outlook
Krafton's Lite strategy in India is a bet on positioning rather than immediate returns. If India sustains annual GDP growth of 6–7% and smartphone penetration continues to deepen, today's budget-handset gamer is a plausible candidate for tomorrow's paying customer. The implications extend well beyond one company. South Korean games developers as a whole face saturating markets at home and across China and South-East Asia. India, alongside the Middle East and Africa, represents one of the few remaining frontiers where demographics and growth trajectories still favour new entrants — but only those willing to invest early and patiently.
How far Krafton can extend the reach of a single intellectual property — Battlegrounds — across a population of 1.5 billion will serve as a telling indicator of just how far South Korean gaming can project itself on the global stage.