At gaming talent hunt series College Rivals’ finale in Mumbai, gamers were quizzed about their favorite lyrics by New Delhi hip-hop duo Seedhe Maut. When asked to complete the lyrics, a pair of girls reeled off the New Delhi rap duo’s quickfire lyrics to “Namastute.” Elsewhere, someone nailed the hook to “Hola Amigo.”
Some might argue that this kind of activity is more suited to a music festival, but gamers are more tuned in than ever to Calm and Encore ABJ’s hard-hitting tunes. It helps that the duo are avid gamers themselves, and have often worked in references to gaming on tracks like “Sick & Proper.”
Perhaps that’s why Seedhe Maut have been favorites at College Rivals, performing at the first edition’s finale in Bengaluru alongside the likes of Chaar Diwaari and Muhfaad. ABJ Encore and Calm returned to take the stage at the Mumbai finale last month as well, alongside pop/hip-hop artist Dizlaw and singer-songwriter Pho.
The event is part of a wave of Esports outings popping up in cities across India. But College Rivals, a joint venture between Singapore gaming and entertainment company Ampverse and digital financial solutions company DMI Finance, isn’t the only festival making a mark. There’s Nodwin Gaming’s BGMI Masters Series for the game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), several Esports competitions within college cultural festivals and the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s Waves festival in Mumbai from May 1 to 4, 2025, which also includes an Esports championship.
New Delhi hip-hop duo Seedhe Maut live at College Rivals season 2 finale in Mumbai in February 2025. Photo: Ampverse
Ampverse Group CEO and co-founder Charlie Baillie says, “Gaming in India is evolving much like music streaming did a decade ago—experiencing rapid growth and shifting consumer habits. At the heart of this transformation is the need to create authentic experiences that seamlessly blend gaming and music, whether through in-game concerts, gaming x music collaborations, or immersive digital events.”
Statista reports that in India, revenue in the Esports market is projected to reach over $10.6 billion in 2025. In 2023 itself, India became the largest gaming market with a userbase of over 568 million.
Music has often been an intrinsic part of the gaming experience, beyond just memorable background scores and theme music. Grand Theft Auto has for long been known for its radio stations introduced in 2001. FIFA has helped launch the careers of acts like MGMT, Another Sky and Kasabian through in-game music that adds to the adrenaline of a matchup. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater from the late 1990s onwards unleashed punk on unsuspecting young gamers, opening their minds and music palettes.
During the pandemic, hip-hop superstar Travis Scott leveled up when he performed at an in-game concert in Fortnite, igniting the potential for virtual concerts in a locked-down world. Bengaluru DJ-producer Oceantied also hosted an in-game gig on Minecraft around the same time.
Gaming area at NH7 Weekender in Pune. Photo: Nodwin Gaming
Nodwin Gaming’s head of festivals, Tej Brar, has been tracking the intersection of gaming and music in India for a while. When he was managing desi bass don Nucleya, they created visuals that adapted the cult and unabashed shooter game Duke Nukem for his set at NH7 Weekender in 2017 in Pune. Thousands packed the house for Nucleya and stayed for the nostalgia value. Brar says, “It was an early, but effective example of how gaming narratives can influence live music programming in a meaningful way—and the reception validated our vision.”
“Gaming in India is evolving much like music streaming did a decade ago.”
Ampverse Group CEO and co-founder Charlie Baillie
With Nodwin Gaming taking over properties such as NH7 Weekender and Comic Con, there have been more instances of artists performing at gaming events and gamers finding a space to cool off at music festivals. Brar says, “What’s exciting is the natural overlap between gaming and music fandoms. Our audience cares as much about a new album drop as they do about a BGMI update. So it’s only logical for brands and publishers to start tapping into this crossover. We’re already seeing global titles look at Indian artists—not just influencers—as key partners.”
Off the stage, hip-hop artists like Seedhe Maut and Sez on The Beat have created “NHK (Nahi Hora Kya)” for fans of the game Valorant via Nodwin Gaming. Tienas and international music producer-composer group ARB4 worked on two songs for Valorant—one that welcomed the game’s Indian agent Harbor (“Raja”) and one for the community in the country (“Gotcha Back”). Referring to the latter, Tienas said earlier this year, “The song can inspire them to play hard and win together as a team and about having each other’s back, because that’s very hard in these types of games and in life as well, you know?”
U.S.-based Indian artist Simantinee Roy contributed a song to ‘Subway Surfers’ for Holi.
In March this year, India-born, U.S.-based pop artist Simantinee Roy lent her voice to a Hindi song called “Colors,” for a Holi update of the wildly popular mobile video game Subway Surfers, which boasts over 3 billion downloads. “As an artist who’s always looking to explore new creative territories, the blend of gaming and music was too unique. It felt like the perfect crossover,” she says. Roy sees the crossover between gaming and music as “organic.”
Although the artist has been able to post online about the song and leverage it on her social media, Roy isn’t publicly credited on streaming platforms by Subway Surfers for “Colors.” It indicates that commissioned projects can only go so far in bringing musicians new listeners, putting the onus back on the artists.
In just the past few months, Kerala fusion band Thaikkudam Bridge (who have a few gamers in their midst) inspired the creation of a character in Indus Battle Royale. Guitarist Ashok Betty Nelson says the new character Agni Raagam stepping out to their song “Navarasam” in the game can certainly help reach newer audiences “beyond traditional indie rock” listeners. “It’s exciting to see how a different kind of storytelling, through an interactive medium, can amplify the themes of our music,” he adds. Goa metal band Within Ceres’ founder and guitarist-composer Odin de Sa—who also works at Ubisoft India as music content lead—submitted their songs “Untether,” “Dissonance” and “Skyless” to be playable on Rocksmith+and it’s been available alongside Gojira, Metallica and Pantera in the game catalog. It makes them the second Indian band to be featured in the game, in addition to thrash metallers Kill The King.
“What’s exciting is the natural overlap between gaming and music fandoms. Our audience cares as much about a new album drop as they do about a BGMI update.”
Nodwin Gaming’s head of festivals Tej Brar
Ampverse’s Baillie says, “Our data clearly shows a rising trend of music conversations happening within these spaces, highlighting an underutilized opportunity for artists’ marketing teams to tap into a more engaged and passionate audience.” They’ve seen habits that blend “music, gaming and social media” and all these elements “intersect naturally” for college-going Indians. “Gaming has become a powerful discovery and distribution platform for music, a trend increasingly recognized by A&R teams at record labels who now look to gaming spaces to discover new talent.”
Thaikkudam Bridge performing in Pune in March 2025 and (right) Agni Raagam in ‘Indus Battle Royale.’ Photos: Courtesy of SuperGaming
However, a seasoned Mumbai-based A&R, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, adds that while music labels are more keenly looking into “what people are doing while they’re gaming,” they still rely on viral song charts on streaming platforms to gauge what’s hot. The rep says there’s ways to go before there’s more clarity. “It’s still not about going and finding an artist on gaming. It’s about leveraging an audience.”
Brar believes that the infrastructure around getting artists’ music into games is still at a nascent stage but is projected to grow. “Once the licensing and sync culture matures a bit more, I genuinely believe we’ll see Indian music not just in Indian games but showing up across global titles too. There’s so much untapped sonic diversity in India—across genres, languages, and moods—and that’s something game developers around the world are going to want to tap into, especially as they look to localize their content for Indian audiences,” he adds.
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