Bihar, Delhi, Rajasthan, UP, Maharashtra, and MP have the most Zupee users, reveals Indian gaming startup COO Akanksha Dhamija- The Week

After ending 2024 as their first-ever profitable financial year, Indian skill-based gaming startup Zupee has been on a growth spree. The company registered a year-on-year growth rate of 60 per cent in its user base, with users from new cities getting added. It is not every day that you see a startup promising to avoid doing any layoffs while also keeping strong growth numbers in place. 

In a conversation with THE WEEK, Zupee COO Akanksha Dhamija, who has been with the company for over four years, discussed the startup’s vision for the future, exploring new paths, and the factors that contribute to their growth.

Q/ Where do you expect Zupee to be three years down the line?

In the coming years, Zupee will not just lead in the skilled gaming category but set a benchmark for responsible gaming. We plan to expand our game portfolio, deepen our presence in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, and continue to invest in innovation and technology to enhance the user experience. Our focus will be on two fronts: first, continuing to strengthen our core flagship games that have built deep user engagement, and second, expanding into adjacent opportunities through new formats or opportunities that tap into how India truly plays. 

Q/ Do you see any convergence between gaming and skill-based gaming at a global level?

Yes, and in many ways, we’re already living that convergence. The global gaming industry is increasingly embracing elements that Zupee has focused on from day one—quick, skill-based gameplay and real rewards.

The idea that games should not only entertain but also engage the mind and offer meaningful outcomes is becoming increasingly mainstream. What we’re seeing is that users today want more than just passive entertainment. They’re looking for games that are fair, challenging and rewarding—and that’s exactly the space in which skill-based gaming operates. Skill-based gaming is helping shape the future of interactive entertainment.

At Zupee, we’ve always believed that culturally rooted games, when paired with strong skill mechanics and technology, can unlock massive value – not just in India but globally. Yes, the convergence is indeed real.

Q/ Can you provide a breakdown of your user base by gender and age brackets? And also by states.

At Zupee, we prioritise user privacy and operate in full compliance with regulatory norms. We do not map or track gender data in line with our commitment to data protection and user trust.

Some of our most engaged users come from Bihar, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The broad-based adoption in both metro cities and smaller towns validates the cultural connection and mass appeal of what we’re building at Zupee. 

Q/ Are there any plans to try your hand at some other category, something Zupee hasn’t tried its hand at yet?

We view Zupee as a skill-based entertainment company, while Ludo, our flagship game, has built strong momentum. We are also open to exploring a few adjacent spaces that build on the same principles—games that are simple, social, and rooted in skill.  We are also excited about gamified learning, light strategy formats, and larger India opportunities—but done in a way that feels fresh, mobile-native, and has synergies with our core. That said, we’re very deliberate in our approach; as we scale, every new category we examine must meet a high bar—it must be engaging, monetizable, culturally resonant, and aligned with Zupee.

Q/ Lastly, what would you attribute as the biggest factors to Zupee’s growth rate?

The biggest factors behind Zupee’s growth are our strong focus on operational agility, product innovation and a balanced approach to acquiring users. Over the past year, we’ve expanded well beyond our core markets by making sure our games resonate culturally and appeal to a wide audience across India.

This cultural connection helps us build a loyal user base. On the growth side, we don’t depend only on paid marketing. Instead, organic word-of-mouth plays a huge role—happy users bring in others, creating a powerful, cost-effective growth loop.

We complement this with targeted performance marketing and brand-building efforts. This multi-channel strategy helps us avoid over-relying on any single method, which keeps growth sustainable. Behind the scenes, investments in data science, product development and technology allow us to stay agile and continuously improve the gaming experience. All these efforts combined have helped us achieve profitability while scaling rapidly, which is quite rare in this fast-growing, competitive industry. 

We’re profitable and focused on scaling sustainably, which gives us the freedom to build, incubate, or invest with a long-term view. Our ambition is not just to grow but to do so sustainably while creating meaningful impact.

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