Real-money gaming was the biggest part of the business. An industry report by WinZO and IEIC put its share of Indian online gaming revenue in 2024 at about 86%. Before the vote, three industry bodies (AIGF, EGF and FIFS) warned that more than 2 lakh jobs and over 400 companies were at risk.

More experienced people on the market

We profiled 165 games candidates between February and early October 2026. About a quarter of them (39 of the 164 who told us) were not working at the time of the call, and 61 mentioned a layoff or a gap in their career.

Who is looking

The biggest groups in our calls were:

• Performance marketing, UA and ASO specialists (44 candidates). Median 3.5 years of experience and ₹7 LPA current pay. Most of them (34) work with both Google Ads and Meta Ads.

• Game designers (42). Median 4.5 years of experience. Level design and live ops came up most often in their skills.

• Motion and video designers (20). Nearly all of them had worked on ads or campaign videos.

Casual, puzzle and educational game studios need these skills.

The skill gap to watch

Moving from real-money games to casual or global games is not a straight swap. For marketers and motion designers, the gap we noted most often was no direct experience with mobile game ads or paid user acquisition.

A strong marketer can learn this. Still, a studio should plan a short ramp-up, and a candidate should be clear about what they have and have not done.

The bigger picture

The ban hit one part of the market hard. The FICCI-EY Media and Entertainment Report 2026 says online gaming revenue fell 26% in 2025 after the ban, while video games grew 14%. The same report puts India’s gamer base at 515 to 525 million and expects video gaming revenue to reach ₹92 billion by 2028. The Act itself sets out to promote esports and social and educational games.

For studios

Many experienced growth and product people are open to a move right now. Hire for skills that transfer (campaign analytics, creative testing, live ops), not only for a genre match. Say clearly whether the role is full time or a contract. Many of these candidates have been through a layoff or a shutdown and will ask about stability.

For candidates

If you are moving from real-money games, lead with the numbers you moved: install costs, retention, payback. Learn how ads and paid user acquisition work for mobile games. Have a clear answer to “why this genre now?” Most hiring managers will ask.

Sources

• Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, and the industry bodies' warning, as reported by Business Today, August 2025.

• WinZO and IEIC report on India’s online gaming sector, as reported by Outlook Business.

• FICCI-EY Media and Entertainment Report 2026, as reported by AnimationXpress, March 2026.

• Playdawn anonymised candidate data, February to October 2026.