At gaming expertise hunt collection Faculty Rivals’ finale in Mumbai, gamers were quizzed about their favourite lyrics by New Delhi hip-hop duo Seedhe Maut. When requested to finish the lyrics, a pair of ladies reeled off the New Delhi rap duo’s quickfire lyrics to “Namastute.” Elsewhere, somebody nailed the hook to “Hola Amigo.”
Some may argue that this sort of exercise is extra suited to a music competition, however avid gamers are extra tuned in than ever to Calm and Encore ABJ’s hard-hitting tunes. It helps that the duo are avid avid gamers themselves, and have usually labored in references to gaming on tracks like “Sick & Correct.”
Maybe that’s why Seedhe Maut have been favorites at Faculty Rivals, performing on the first version’s finale in Bengaluru alongside the likes of Chaar Diwaari and Muhfaad. ABJ Encore and Calm returned to take the stage on the Mumbai finale final month as nicely, alongside pop/hip-hop artist Dizlaw and singer-songwriter Pho.
The occasion is a part of a wave of Esports outings popping up in cities throughout India. However Faculty Rivals, a three way partnership between Singapore gaming and leisure firm Ampverse and digital monetary options firm DMI Finance, isn’t the one competition making a mark. There’s Nodwin Gaming’s BGMI Masters Sequence for the sport Battlegrounds Cell India (BGMI), a number of Esports competitions inside school cultural festivals and the Indian Ministry of Data and Broadcasting’s Waves competition in Mumbai from Might 1 to 4, 2025, which additionally contains an Esports championship.
New Delhi hip-hop duo Seedhe Maut dwell at Faculty Rivals season 2 finale in Mumbai in February 2025. Photograph: Ampverse
Ampverse Group CEO and co-founder Charlie Baillie says, “Gaming in India is evolving very like music streaming did a decade in the past—experiencing speedy progress and shifting client habits. On the coronary heart of this transformation is the necessity to create genuine experiences that seamlessly mix gaming and music, whether or not by means of in-game concert events, gaming x music collaborations, or immersive digital occasions.”
Statista reports that in India, income within the Esports market is projected to succeed in over $10.6 billion in 2025. In 2023 itself, India turned the most important gaming market with a userbase of over 568 million.
Music has usually been an intrinsic a part of the gaming expertise, past simply memorable background scores and theme music. Grand Theft Auto has for lengthy been identified for its radio stations launched in 2001. FIFA has helped launch the careers of acts like MGMT, One other Sky and Kasabian by means of in-game music that provides to the adrenaline of a matchup. Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater from the late Nineteen Nineties onwards unleashed punk on unsuspecting younger avid gamers, opening their minds and music palettes.
Through the pandemic, hip-hop famous person Travis Scott leveled up when he carried out at an in-game live performance in Fortnite, igniting the potential for digital concert events in a locked-down world. Bengaluru DJ-producer Oceantied additionally hosted an in-game gig on Minecraft across the similar time.
Gaming space at NH7 Weekender in Pune. Photograph: Nodwin Gaming
Nodwin Gaming’s head of festivals, Tej Brar, has been monitoring the intersection of gaming and music in India for some time. When he was managing desi bass don Nucleya, they created visuals that tailored the cult and unabashed shooter recreation Duke Nukem for his set at NH7 Weekender in 2017 in Pune. 1000’s packed the home for Nucleya and stayed for the nostalgia worth. Brar says, “It was an early, however efficient instance of how gaming narratives can affect dwell music programming in a significant manner—and the reception validated our imaginative and prescient.”
“Gaming in India is evolving very like music streaming did a decade in the past.”
Ampverse Group CEO and co-founder Charlie Baillie
With Nodwin Gaming taking on properties equivalent to NH7 Weekender and Comedian Con, there have been extra situations of artists acting at gaming occasions and avid gamers discovering an area to chill off at music festivals. Brar says, “What’s thrilling is the pure overlap between gaming and music fandoms. Our viewers cares as a lot a few new album drop as they do a few BGMI replace. So it’s solely logical for manufacturers and publishers to start out tapping into this crossover. We’re already seeing international titles have a look at Indian artists—not simply influencers—as key companions.”
Off the stage, hip-hop artists like Seedhe Maut and Sez on The Beat have created “NHK (Nahi Hora Kya)” for followers of the sport Valorant by way of Nodwin Gaming. Tienas and worldwide music producer-composer group ARB4 labored on two songs for Valorant—one which welcomed the sport’s Indian agent Harbor (“Raja”) and one for the neighborhood within the nation (“Gotcha Back”). Referring to the latter, Tienas mentioned earlier this yr, “The tune can encourage them to play arduous and win collectively as a staff and about having one another’s again, as a result of that’s very arduous in these kind of video games and in life as nicely, you recognize?”
U.S.-based Indian artist Simantinee Roy contributed a tune to ‘Subway Surfers’ for Holi.
In March this yr, India-born, U.S.-based pop artist Simantinee Roy lent her voice to a Hindi tune referred to as “Colors,” for a Holi replace of the wildly common cellular online game Subway Surfers, which boasts over 3 billion downloads. “As an artist who’s all the time seeking to discover new artistic territories, the mix of gaming and music was too distinctive. It felt like the proper crossover,” she says. Roy sees the crossover between gaming and music as “natural.”
Though the artist has been capable of publish on-line concerning the tune and leverage it on her social media, Roy isn’t publicly credited on streaming platforms by Subway Surfers for “Colours.” It signifies that commissioned tasks can solely go up to now in bringing musicians new listeners, placing the onus again on the artists.
In simply the previous few months, Kerala fusion band Thaikkudam Bridge (who’ve a couple of avid gamers of their midst) impressed the creation of a character in Indus Battle Royale. Guitarist Ashok Betty Nelson says the brand new character Agni Raagam stepping out to their tune “Navarasam” within the recreation can actually assist attain newer audiences “past conventional indie rock” listeners. “It’s thrilling to see how a special form of storytelling, by means of an interactive medium, can amplify the themes of our music,” he provides. Goa metallic band Within Ceres’ founder and guitarist-composer Odin de Sa—who additionally works at Ubisoft India as music content material lead—submitted their songs “Untether,” “Dissonance” and “Skyless” to be playable on Rocksmith+and it’s been accessible alongside Gojira, Metallica and Pantera within the recreation catalog. It makes them the second Indian band to be featured within the recreation, along with thrash metallers Kill The King.
“What’s thrilling is the pure overlap between gaming and music fandoms. Our viewers cares as a lot a few new album drop as they do a few BGMI replace.”
Nodwin Gaming’s head of festivals Tej Brar
Ampverse’s Baillie says, “Our information clearly exhibits a rising development of music conversations occurring inside these areas, highlighting an underutilized alternative for artists’ advertising groups to faucet right into a extra engaged and passionate viewers.” They’ve seen habits that mix “music, gaming and social media” and all these parts “intersect naturally” for college-going Indians. “Gaming has change into a robust discovery and distribution platform for music, a development more and more acknowledged by A&R groups at file labels who now look to gaming areas to find new expertise.”
Thaikkudam Bridge performing in Pune in March 2025 and (proper) Agni Raagam in ‘Indus Battle Royale.’ Pictures: Courtesy of SuperGaming
Nevertheless, a seasoned Mumbai-based A&R, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, provides that whereas music labels are extra keenly trying into “what persons are doing whereas they’re gaming,” they nonetheless depend on viral tune charts on streaming platforms to gauge what’s sizzling. The rep says there’s methods to go earlier than there’s extra readability. “It’s nonetheless not about going and discovering an artist on gaming. It’s about leveraging an viewers.”
Brar believes that the infrastructure round getting artists’ music into video games remains to be at a nascent stage however is projected to develop. “As soon as the licensing and sync tradition matures a bit extra, I genuinely imagine we’ll see Indian music not simply in Indian video games however exhibiting up throughout international titles too. There’s a lot untapped sonic range in India—throughout genres, languages, and moods—and that’s one thing recreation builders world wide are going to wish to faucet into, particularly as they give the impression of being to localize their content material for Indian audiences,” he provides.
