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Esports joins Khelo India Youth Games 2025 with BGMI, Street Fighter 6, Chess, and eFootball, boosting grassroots esports in India.
Khelo India Youth Games 2025 is being hosted by Bihar.
Esports has been added to the Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) for the first time as a demonstration event featuring BGMI, Street Fighter 6, Chess, and eFootball, a development that industry experts believe will help establish it as a mainstream sport.
Esports will be an official medal sport at the 2026 Asian Games, and the first-ever Olympic Esports Games is scheduled to start in 2027.
Before its inclusion in KIYG 2025, hosts Bihar had organised the Bihar State Esports Open Championship and the Bihar Inter School and College Esports Championship over the past year.
States like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Nagaland have also taken proactive steps to support and formalise grassroots esports programs.
Esports competitions will be beld at the Patliputra Sports Complex on May 6 and 7, featuring popular titles such as Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), Street Fighter 6, Chess, and eFootball on both mobile and console.
While BGMI remains the most popular esports title in India, Chess stands out as a particularly noteworthy addition to KIYG 2025.
Once considered a purely traditional sport, it has increasingly found a home in the esports world, most recently as part of the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2025, which boasts a prize pool of USD 1.5 million (Rs 12.6 crore) for the title.
“The inclusion of titles like BGMI, Street Fighter 6, Chess, and eFootball in the Khelo India Youth Games 2025 signals a big step forward for grassroots esports in India,” says Akshat Rathee, Co-founder and Managing Director of NODWIN Gaming.
“It’s encouraging to see esports standing shoulder to shoulder with traditional sports, and the addition of Chess – bridging classical and digital strategy shows how in tune this initiative is with global trends. But this isn’t just about tournaments.
“It’s about creating real opportunities to discover talent from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, places that have been overlooked for too long, thus building the foundation for a future where Indian gamers don’t just participate, they dominate on the world stage.”
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
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