Mortal

Mortal
Personal information
Born	Naman Mathur (1997-05-22) May 22, 1997 Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Nationality	Indian
Occupation(s)	YouTuber, streamer
YouTube information
Channel	MortaL
Also known as	Mortal
Years active	2016–present
Genre	Gaming
Subscribers	7 million+ (September 2026)
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 1,000,000 subscribers

Mortal (born Naman Mathur; (1997-05-22)May 22, 1997) is an Indian gaming YouTuber, livestreamer, and former professional esports athlete who is widely regarded as one of the founding figures of mobile esports in India. Playing under the in-game name "Soul Mortal", he rose to fame as the leader of Team SouL, the squad that conquered the PUBG Mobile India Series and the PMCO India regionals in 2019. Today he is a co-owner of S8UL Esports — the first organisation to win Content Group of the Year at the Esports Awards three years in a row — and has more than seven million YouTube subscribers as of September 2026.

Early life and education

Naman Mathur was born on 22 May 1997 in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He was raised by his mother after his father died when he was four years old, and he has spoken about the family's early financial struggles and about handing his mother his very first pay cheque from gaming — a moment he has called a turning point in his life.

He pursued a Computer Science degree alongside his early streaming, deliberately setting aside study time while gaming, and as a young viewer he watched India's early YouTubers and dreamed of standing beside them one day — a journey he has described as going "from viewer to icon".

Career

Mathur launched his YouTube channel, MortaL, in 2016, uploading gameplay videos of the 2D shooter Mini Militia (Doodle Army 2). In the early days he was happy with just a few hundred views per video and had no expectation of going viral — people simply wanted to learn the plays he was pulling off.

Everything changed in 2018, when PUBG Mobile launched in India. Mathur, playing as "Soul Mortal", began streaming the battle royale title full time, and his calm, humble on-stream personality paired with sharp gameplay turned him into the face of the country's PUBG wave almost overnight. He took on the role of in-game leader of Team SouL, a squad he built with friends including Yash "VipeR" Soni, Harpreet "Ronak" Singh, and Mohammad Owais Lakhani.

The year 2019 became his defining competitive season. Led by Mortal, Team SouL won the PUBG Mobile India Series — the country's first open-to-all gaming tournament, held in Hyderabad — taking home the Rs 30 lakh top prize, then won the PUBG Mobile Club Open – Spring Split India regionals, earning a berth at the global finals in Berlin, Germany. The twin triumphs made Mortal the most-watched PUBG Mobile player in the country and a household name among Indian gamers.

After PUBG Mobile was banned in India, Mortal continued competing in its successor, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), and in 2023 he formally stepped away from competitive play, explaining that owning Team SouL alongside S8UL co-owners made it impossible to grind esports professionally while running a full-time streaming channel. He has said he never began competitive play intending to become a pro — "I enjoyed it a lot... after that, I wanted to become a YouTuber, primarily a streamer, so I turned towards streaming".

Mortal is a co-owner of S8UL Esports, the Indian gaming and content organisation formed from the merger of Team SouL and 8Bit, alongside Animesh "Soul_Thug" Agarwal and Lokesh "Goldy" Jain. Under their ownership, S8UL won Content Group of the Year at the Esports Awards in 2022, 2023, and 2024 — the first organisation in history to claim the title three years consecutively, beating global giants like G2 Esports, Fnatic, Sentinels, and T1. Mortal himself was nominated for Esports Personality of the Year at the Esports Awards in 2022 and 2023, and finished runner-up for Streamer of the Year in 2020 and 2021.

Beyond competition, he has become one of Indian gaming's most visible public figures. In April 2024 he was among the seven leading Indian gamers invited to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the future of the country's gaming industry — a meeting Mathur described as "surreal". He has also used his platform to speak out on the culture of the community, including calling for more women to compete at the highest level of esports rather than face the "double standards" he says parts of the audience hold toward female streamers.

Today Mortal streams daily on his MortaL channel, which has grown past seven million subscribers as of September 2026, and remains one of the most influential personalities in Indian gaming.

Achievements and recognition

• Winner, PUBG Mobile India Series 2019 (with Team SouL)
• Winner, PUBG Mobile Club Open – Spring Split: India 2019 (with Team SouL)
• Co-owner, S8UL Esports — Content Group of the Year, Esports Awards 2022, 2023, 2024
• Nominee, Esports Personality of the Year (Esports Awards 2022, 2023); runner-up, Streamer of the Year (2020, 2021)
• YouTube Gold Play Button for one million subscribers

External links

• Mortal on YouTube
• Mortal on Instagram