Payal Gaming is one of India's most recognisable female gaming creators, known for her BGMI streams, her rise with S8UL Esports, and her move into mainstream television with Bigg Boss 19. Her YouTube channel has grown well past the 4 million mark, and her story remains one of the most searched gaming-creator biographies in India. This updated profile checks her stats, career milestones, and public details against current, verifiable sources so you're not reading numbers or facts that are years out of date.
Table of Contents
Who Is Payal Gaming?
Payal Gaming, whose real name is Payal Dhare, is an Indian gaming YouTuber, streamer, and content creator best known for her Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) gameplay. She began uploading videos in 2019 and is now one of the most subscribed female gaming creators in the country, with a channel that has grown past 4.6 million subscribers as of mid-2026.
She is a full-time content creator and streamer with S8UL Esports, one of India's leading gaming organisations, and in 2025 she stepped outside gaming for the first time as a contestant on the reality show Bigg Boss 19.
Payal Gaming: Quick Facts
| Real Name | Payal Dhare |
| Known As | Payal Gaming |
| Date of Birth | September 18, 2000 |
| Age (2026) | 25 Years |
| Birthplace | Umranala, Chhindwara district, Madhya Pradesh, India |
| Occupation | YouTuber, Streamer, Content Creator, Gaming Influencer |
| Esports Org | S8UL Esports (since 2021) |
| Main Game | BGMI (formerly PUBG Mobile) |
| YouTube Subscribers | 4.6M+ (mid-2026) |
| Instagram Followers | 4M+ (@payalgamingg) |
| Nationality | Indian |
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Early Life and Background
Payal Dhare was born on September 18, 2000, in Umranala, a village in the Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh, to Shiv Shankar Dhare and Sangeeta Dhare. She has two sisters, an elder sibling named Anjali and a younger sister named Bhumi. Growing up in a middle-class household, gaming started out as a casual hobby during her college years rather than a planned career path. Her cousins first introduced her to mobile gaming, and while her father was supportive early on, her mother was initially unsure about gaming as a career, a view that changed as Payal's following and income grew.
Education
Payal completed her schooling at Maharishi Vidya Mandir in Chhindwara and later pursued a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) degree at Rungta College in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. That Bhilai connection through her college is likely why some older profiles list Bhilai as her hometown, though her actual birthplace and native district is Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh.
YouTube Career and Rise
Payal launched her YouTube channel in 2019 under the name Substance Payal, later rebranding it to Payal Gaming, and uploaded her first PUBG Mobile gameplay video on July 15, 2019. Her channel picked up real momentum during the 2020 pandemic lockdown, when viewership across Indian gaming YouTube surged. After PUBG Mobile was banned in India, she shifted her content to Battlegrounds Mobile India, along with GTA V and other titles, and kept her audience through the transition.
She crossed 1 million subscribers within about two years of starting and went on to become the first Indian female gamer to pass 3 million YouTube subscribers, in May 2023. She joined S8UL Esports in 2021, which placed her among India's most visible professional streamers. Her channel has since grown well beyond that: subscriber-tracking sites put her at roughly 4.6 to 4.7 million subscribers as of mid-2026, alongside more than 500 million total channel views. She also runs a secondary channel, Payal Shorts, and has built a following of over 4 million on Instagram.
Achievements and Recognition
- Mobile Streamer of the Year, MOBIES 2024: Payal became the first Indian female gamer to win an international gaming award, taking this title at the Mobile Gaming Awards in Los Angeles.
- Meeting with PM Narendra Modi (2024): She was the only female gamer included in a roundtable discussion with the Prime Minister on the future of India's gaming industry.
- First Indian woman to cross 3 million YouTube subscribers in the gaming category (May 2023), later crossing 4 million as her channel kept growing.
- National creator awards: She has picked up recognitions such as Gaming Creator of the Year (Female) at Indian creator-economy award shows in recent years.
Bigg Boss 19 Journey
In August 2025, entertainment outlets reported that Payal had signed on as a contestant for Bigg Boss 19 (hosted by Salman Khan, premiered August 24, 2025), making her one of the first major gaming influencers to enter the show. Her participation was widely covered as a milestone for gaming creators crossing over into mainstream Indian television.
Info!
Bigg Boss 19 ran from August 24 to December 7, 2025, and was won by actor Gaurav Khanna, with Farrhana Bhatt as runner-up. Reporting on exactly how far Payal progressed in the competition is inconsistent across sources, and she was not among the finalists in the show's closing weeks. If you need the precise week and date of her exit for this article, that's worth a quick source check before publishing, since entertainment-news trackers disagree on the exact timeline.
BGMI Player Details
Within BGMI, Payal Gaming's player ID is 5120321397, and her in-game name (IGN) is S8ulPÄYÄL, reflecting her association with S8UL Esports.
Personal Life and Public Attention
Payal has generally kept her personal life private and has not publicly confirmed a relationship. In December 2025, she was targeted by a malicious AI-generated deepfake video that circulated on social media, an incident she publicly addressed and pushed back against. As with any deepfake or non-consensual content targeting a real person, that content itself has no place being described, searched for, or linked here; the relevant fact for readers is that she was the target of the harassment, not a participant in it, and she has spoken about the toll of that kind of online abuse.
Net Worth and Income (2026)
Payal Gaming does not publicly disclose exact earnings, and third-party estimates vary widely, which is normal for creator net-worth figures. Across several 2025 to 2026 estimates, her net worth is placed anywhere between roughly ₹1 crore and ₹10 crore, with monthly income estimates ranging from around ₹6 lakh to ₹15 lakh depending on the source and time period. Her income comes from YouTube ad revenue, brand sponsorships, S8UL-related deals, and her clothing label, Thriftxpayal. Given how much these estimates disagree, treat any single number as a rough range rather than a confirmed figure.
Payal Gaming: Social Media
| YouTube | @payalgaming |
| @payalgamingg | |
| YouTube (Shorts channel) | Payal Shorts |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Payal Gaming's real name?
Her real name is Payal Dhare. Payal Gaming is her YouTube and streaming name.
How old is Payal Gaming?
She was born on September 18, 2000, making her 25 years old as of 2026.
How many YouTube subscribers does Payal Gaming have?
Her main channel has crossed roughly 4.6 million subscribers as of mid-2026, alongside a large following on Instagram and a secondary Shorts channel.
Did Payal Gaming appear on Bigg Boss?
Yes, she was reported as a contestant on Bigg Boss 19, which aired from August to December 2025, becoming one of the first gaming creators to join the show.
What is Payal Gaming's net worth?
Unofficial estimates place it anywhere from about ₹1 crore to ₹10 crore, since she has not publicly confirmed a figure and third-party trackers disagree.
Summary
Payal Gaming's path from a casual PUBG Mobile hobbyist to one of India's most-followed female gaming creators reflects the growth of the country's streaming and esports scene over the last six years. Her 2025 move into Bigg Boss 19 marked a new chapter beyond gaming content, and her YouTube and Instagram numbers continue to climb heading into 2026.
