The absurd estimates tossed out for the gaming sector in Pakistan may make boomers and late millennials squirm.
Sumail Hassan, the highest-paid Pakistani gamer, has made $3.8 million playing Dota 2. This is almost Rs675 million (67.5 crores) at the current exchange rate, significantly more than the average Lahore University of Management Sciences graduate will make in his lifetime working for a prestigious global corporation.
The gaming business, which is valued around $200 billion globally and is growing at a CAGR of 9.64 percent, is completely ignored in Pakistan. While tech exports have surpassed $2 billion, the game industry’s participation remains negligible. According to a LinkedIn post by Babar Ahmed of Lion Company, a mobile publishing studio based in the United States, Turkish game companies, for example, have raised $238 million this year.
From the data provided by the unpublished International Game Developers Association study, Samar Hasan, co-founder of Epiphany Games, extrapolates that about 12,000-15,000 people work in the business. According to the report, the industry generates up to $25 million in local revenue each year.
