Over 84,000 Indian gaming accounts leaked in 2024, says Kaspersky

Over 84,000 online gaming account user details were leaked in India in 2024, the global cybersecurity and digital privacy company Kaspersky on Tuesday said.

The maximum number of leaks of gaming account user details was witnessed in Thailand, the minimum such instances were in Singapore in the Asia-Pacific (APAC)Region, it said.

The APAC region has emerged as the global epicentre of gaming, with more than half of the world's gamers based here. Markets such as China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the rapidly growing economies of Southeast Asia contribute significantly to this dominance.

According to Kaspersky, Thailand recorded 1,62,892 leaked cases, followed by the Philippines with 99,273, Vietnam 87,969, India 84,262, Indonesia 69,909, Malaysia 37,718, South Korea 37,097, China 18,786, Sri Lanka 10,877, and Singapore 4,262 leaked cases, the company said.

The company further said that 11 million gaming account credentials were leaked last year.

The region's rapid digital adoption, widespread mobile penetration, and youth-driven demand have fueled exponential growth across both casual and competitive gaming segments, it added.

With nearly 1.8 billion players and growing, the gaming ecosystem in APAC is not only the largest by volume but also among the most influential in shaping global gaming trends and behaviours, the company said.

"Thus, it does not come as a surprise that the region is fast-becoming a breeding ground for data-stealing cyber threats, the company said.

Addressing an event here, Adrian Hia, the company's Managing Director for Asia Pacific, said that virus threats have gone up significantly over the last two decades from one new virus threat every hour to 4,67, 000 new virus threats every day in the year 2004.

The company's global non-audited revenue was at USD 822 million in 2024. Kaspersky registered 11 per cent sales growth last year.