India could be esports' biggest growth story as EWC eyes rapid expansion

India could emerge as the biggest growth story in global esports, with the Esports World Cup Foundation betting on the country's vast fan base, maturing competitive ecosystem and evolving policy environment to accelerate its presence in the sport.

"There's no country on the planet that has more potential than India when it comes to esports," Mike McCabe, COO and Deputy CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation, told PTI in an interview on the sidelines of the ongoing Esports World Cup.

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McCabe said the enthusiasm around Indian esports clubs and players was already evident at the tournament and that the Foundation had developed dedicated plans to expand its presence in the country.

"The fandom that we see in India, the passion that we see for the Indian clubs who are competing here is incredible. And so we're obviously investing more. I have dedicated strategies specifically for India growth. It's a personal project of mine that I feel really strongly about.

"And so I think over the next couple of years, with obviously an evolution of government policy that we've seen more recently, it's going to open the door to a period of rapid acceleration."

The Foundation has already held EWC qualification events in India in partnership with Geoblast and is engaging with Indian esports organisations to explore ways of supporting teams as well as the broader ecosystem.

"For the first few events that we've run in India, we ran some qualification events for EWC with Geoblast partnership there. That's been really, really strong," McCabe said.

"And the performance there has been great. I've been meeting with some of the Indian clubs that have been here over the course of the last couple of weeks with PUBG Mobile.

"And just hearing from them first hand, how can we work together to help support them, but also to support the ecosystem in India as it grows."

The push into India comes as the Esports World Cup itself expands into one of the world's largest multi-game sporting properties.

The 2026 edition features more than 2,000 players and 200 clubs from over 100 countries competing across 25 tournaments in 24 games. The event has a record prize pool of $75 million, while more than 1.5 million players took part in 330 qualification events ahead of the tournament.

From Riyadh to Paris

The Foundation's ambitions have also been tested by the upheaval surrounding this year's tournament.

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The 2026 Esports World Cup was moved from Riyadh to Paris after organisers concluded that travel disruption and regional volatility made staging the event in Saudi Arabia too difficult. The decision came after around 10 months of planning for Riyadh.

McCabe said cancelling the tournament was never an option because of the impact it would have had on players and clubs, while the event's seven-week window left little scope for postponement.

"...We were very forthright on that with our stakeholders. That if we cancel the event, it would be a significant impact to the clubs and the players who rely on this moment during the annual calendar to be able to really deliver on the biggest stage and generate the most significant amount of prize money."

He said moving the event to a different date would also have meant losing a significant portion of its tournaments because the EWC's schedule depends on the availability of the world's biggest games.

"Delay wasn't something we could do either because this is the one seven-week period where all of the biggest games in the world give us the window to be able to operate. So we couldn't move. If we moved, we would have lost probably more than half of the tournaments that we have."

The Foundation therefore opted to relocate rather than stage a broadcast-only event without spectators.

"We could either relocate and just do a broadcast-only event so we would maintain the competitive integrity. We'd maintain the broadcast experience, but we would rob the event of the fans. And that would have been a last resort for us.

"So when we had this opportunity to not just relocate, but relocate and make it a spectacle and build bigger stages than we've ever built in Riyadh. So our Stage 1 has over 7,100 seats. Our biggest venue in Riyadh had 2,000 seats.

"And so this has been incredible to be able to increase the scale as well as relocate."

The Esports World Cup Foundation paid about 250 million euros to France to organise the event in Paris.

Chasing commercial sustainability

As esports grows in scale, the industry is also looking to deepen its commercial base, particularly by attracting brands seeking access to younger consumers.

McCabe said sponsorship revenues had grown significantly over the three editions of the Esports World Cup, with more major companies recognising esports as a route to younger audiences.

"We're seeing more and more big brands are identifying that esports is the way that they're able to connect with a younger demographic."

The Foundation is also keeping an eye on the possibility of a future Olympic esports competition.

A 12-year agreement signed in 2024 between the EWCF and the International Olympic Committee to launch and host the Olympic Esports Games was mutually terminated in October last year.

McCabe said that had not closed the door on future cooperation, while suggesting that the Foundation's ability to move quickly could eventually complement the IOC's more traditional approach.

"If we can pick up an event and move an event that's bigger than the Winter Olympics in eight weeks and run it at this level, we run at different speeds. And we felt that the nation-based competition is something that's our next big growth factor for esports globally.

"And the IOC were keen to continue to evaluate and be able to identify what is the right moment. They have more than 100 years of heritage. And so for them, we completely understand that the brand is really sensitive... so what we said was, okay, we'll move first and then we'll keep the conversation going."

For India, the Foundation's bet is that the combination of a huge gaming audience, increasingly competitive teams and a more supportive policy environment can turn that global momentum into a much bigger esports opportunity at home.