M-League Introduces Blast+ To Enter India’s Free-to-Play Gaming Market

M-League has introduced Blast+, a new publishing arm dedicated to bringing Free-to-Play (F2P) games to India. The move is aimed at both global and indie game developers looking to tap into India’s expanding mobile gaming market.

India’s gaming sector is one of the fastest- growing in the world, with a growing number of gamers moving to mobile platforms. Blast+ will offer support to developers by handling localization, marketing, live operations, payment solutions and customer service in the Indian market.

The introduction of Blast+ comes as the demand for F2P games in India continues to rise. Sai Srinivas, co-founder of M-League, noted that the current F2P market in India is at a similar stage to the growth of skill-based gaming in the country when M-League first launched MPL in 2018. With increased consumer interest in in-app purchases (IAP) and a growing willingness to try new games, M-League sees potential for F2P games to gain traction.

Blast+ is also following the example of M-League’s European acquisition, GameDuell, which shifted to a cross-platform model and increased its focus on F2P games after M-League bought the company in 2022. Today, a large portion of GameDuell’s revenue comes from F2P titles, and M-League is now aiming to replicate that success in India through Blast+.

The company has assembled a team of industry professionals with experience from major gaming companies like EA, Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Wargaming and Scopely to lead the new publishing division. The team’s expertise is expected to help with game publishing and player engagement in India.

India is home to an estimated 600 million gamers, and recent reports indicate that Indian gamers are shifting away from casual games toward a wider variety of genres. The same report also highlights the growth in in-app purchases, with the average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) in India reaching USD 19.2 in FY23, a significant increase from USD 2.4 in FY19.