E-gaming hiring remains strong despite the RMG ban

The online gaming sector continues to flash around 50,000-60,000 open positions | Photo credit: Sabrina Bracher

India’s online gaming ecosystem has kept demand for staff high, with core roles in development games accounting for the lion’s share of demand. The sector continues to offer around 50,000 to 60,000 open positions, said Sarbojit Mallick, co-founder of Instahyre. business line citing vacancies posted in their database. Core game developers such as Unity/Unreal developers, backend engineers, 3D artists and designers accounted for 70-80 percent of the total open positions, while Indian studios are shifting towards higher quality and AAA quality titles.

Meanwhile, esports-driven community roles such as tournament managers, community managers, content creators and gameplay analysts accounted for 5-10 percent of total positions, indicating rapid growth. Marketing, in-game monetization and community engagement roles reported steady growth, coupled with livestreaming activities, viewer retention and global publishing ambitions.

“We believe that India’s total gaming employment could grow by around 60-70 percent by the end of 2026, despite the impact of the real money gambling ban,” Mallick said.

Rather than discouraging participation, the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, clearly separated e-games from RMG and boosted trust among gamers, according to a national survey by JetSynthesys and YouGov. It revealed that 75 percent of Indian esports players consider the industry as a viable career option, while 56 percent of players expressed interest in roles as coaches, analysts, team managers or event organizers, etc.

“This shows that, like any other professional sports ecosystem, there is a greater interest and a great opportunity. Many athletes are becoming streamers, entertaining their communities, building their audiences, to monetize their talent outside of playing the sport,” said Rajan Navani, Founder and CEO of Jetsynthesys.

Retaining talent

According to Aditya Narayan Mishra, MD and CEO, CIEL HR, the closures in August 2025 were largely limited to RMG companies, leading to a temporary hiring lull in that segment.

It appears that part of the workforce has managed to be reintegrated into other companies. After the ban, Felicity Games got a new head of engineering and head of analytics from one of the top RMG companies.

“This is talent that would otherwise have been incredibly difficult to find. In that sense, the ban was a good thing for the global boom of other forms of gaming industry,” said Anurag Choudhary, founder and CEO of Felicity. Similarly, DreamSports said in December that it will retain all its talent even after the ban and redistribute workers across its seven other platforms.

However, for the working population, the pain of the sudden RMG ban remains. After talking to some of the talent in the gaming sector, Meet Shah, Founder and CEO, BeBetta business line how some people no longer want to get into gaming and want to look at another industry.

“It has been a very difficult time for many of these people who had to be laid off because of the ban. We have to look from their point of view too. From one day to the next your job is gone. It leaves a mark,” he said.

Perhaps in light of such incidents, individuals in the JetSynthesys survey identified further government recognition, access to career guidance and mentorship as clear priorities to further strengthen the sector. For now, stakeholders remain optimistic about the employment prospects in e-gaming.

Published on January 21, 2026