Esports has grown extremely rapidly over the past few years, with more and more people participating in tournaments or watching it livestreams on Twitch. It is a medium that many still aren’t able to grasps its relevance and have instead shunned the idea of it ever being a legitimate career path or even a “real” sport. But when the Esports scene is racking up major stacks, with the European market alone estimated to be worth $209 Million, it’s time to really take Esports more seriously, both as a business platform and as an entertainment platform.
To give you a brief rundown on what Esports is all about:
eSports is a form of competition using video games. Most commonly, eSports takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players. The most common video game genres associated with eSports are real-time strategy, fighting, first-person shooter (FPS), and multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA). Tournaments such as The International, the League of Legends World Championship, the Evolution Championship Series and the Intel Extreme Masters provide live broadcasts of the competition, and prize money to competitors.
According to The Esports Observer, they’ve reported that the European Market is worth $209 million alone, which is very impressive considering the biggest market for esports right now is America:
This corresponds to 32 percent of the global esports revenues ($660 million), even though Europe accounts for just 20 percent of the worldwide esports audience. Newzoo expects a further 32 percent rise in revenues until 2020. This makes the region the second biggest esports market, after North America (36 percent of the global revenues) and above Asia (which generates 27 percent).
And if you think that’s impressive, according to Newzoo, the market is estimated to reach $1.2 billion by 2020:
The coming year will see the Esports Economy grow to $696 million, a year-on-year growth of 41.3%. Brands are expected to spend $517 million, broken down into $155 million on advertising, $266 million on sponsorship, and a further $95 million on media rights. Brand investment will double by 2020, pushing the total market to $1.5 billion.
As you can see, the esports scene isn’t something that’s going anywhere, anytime soon. So it is important that people start recognizing the significant of the esports scene. Professional players are able to rack up tens of thousands of dollars, even up to the millions. Stadiums are always filled up and tickets are almost always sold out just to see these players perform live on stage. It’s entertainment that fans enjoy and they have shown that they’re willing to support it.
According to Statista,
the 2017 Intel Extreme Masters Katowice held in Poland, was the most watched eSports event, with a recorded 46 million unique viewers. The event included competitions in Counter Strike, League of Legends and Starcraft. The second most viewed tournament was league of Legends World Championship in October 2016 , with 43 million unique viewers.
In 2016, the number of frequent eSports viewers and enthusiasts amounted to 162 million. This number is projected to reach 286 million in 2020.
Let me know what you think of all of this. Still think esport is something not worth taking note of?
