Almost 70% of internet users in the United States and the United Kingdom have heard of the term ‘eSports’. You’d expect a similar survey would provide a much higher number for some other popular sports but still, competitive gaming has come a long way to get to this point.
Go back just ten years and it was still very much on the fringes, resigned mostly to teenage bedrooms and sweaty community centres. Now, there are global leagues for dozens of different games and each one has investors and sponsors pumping millions of dollars into the industry each year. Like it or not, eSports is very much a mainstream industry now and let’s look at some of the reasons why.
Viewership
Perhaps the biggest indicator of this is the staggering viewership numbers which some eSports leagues are getting. League of Legends is still the biggest title in competitive gaming and that is reflected in viewership figures. The League of Legends World Championship Finals 2018 was the most-watched eSports event of the year, bringing in over 99 million unique viewers worldwide. That figure is equalled by very few other sporting events.
But it’s not just League of Legends which draws in the crowds. Dota 2’s The International has massively grown in popularity and is said to have taken in over 52 million views in 2018 while in third place, CS:GO’s ELEAGUE Major was watched by over 49 million people across the globe. These are impressive figures for any event.
Sponsorship
In 2017, companies spent almost $500 million on eSports and by 2019, that figure is expected to double. Whether it’s in sponsorship, rights deals, or advertising, some of the biggest firms in the world are diversifying into eSports investment. A lot of that goes on organisations. Competitive gaming organisations can field teams in numerous different titles under one banner, creating a consistent fan base as well as some form of stability.
Because of that, some of these organisations have achieved an incredible amount of success. One such firm, Cloud9 Gaming is said to be worth around $310 million but they aren’t alone at the top with Team SoloMid and Team Liquid completing the top three with valuations of $250 million and $200 million respectively. Some of the biggest companies on the planet have started to invest in competitive gaming including Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple.
Similarities with Traditional Sports
The question ‘is eSports a real sport?’ is as old as competitive gaming itself. The answer doesn’t really matter but it’s obvious that eSports has taken more than a little inspiration from more traditional sports. Whether it’s in the organisations themselves or the behaviour of fans, the similarities are often uncanny.
Fans can purchase merchandise for their favourite organisations from stores like ESL Gaming and even bet on matches on sites like Betway before going to watch the favourite teams in person at sold-out arenas and stadiums. Much like most traditional sports, there is an emphasis on teamwork and training for the elite players and that often filters down the levels to amateurs.
Well-known Personalities
Imagine Basketball with LeBron James or football without Lionel Messi. Sports need icons or at the very least, personalities people can look up to. Competitive gaming is still in its relative infancy but has that in abundance with some truly breaking through to the mainstream.
In 2018, a Fortnite player called Ninja created worldwide news when he streamed himself playing with the rapper Drake. It became the most-watched individual Twitch stream in history at over 635,000 concurrent viewers. Most players’ popularity is contained within their respective games but many have hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
Global Growth
There aren’t many sports which are truly global. American sports are quite isolated while cricket and hockey haven’t really caught on in the Americas or most of Africa like they have across Europe and Asia. Association football reigns supreme but even that lacks support in much of the United States and China.
It needs specialist equipment and competitive gaming isn’t on that level of popularity but it is one of the few sports to have caught on in the United States, Asia, and much of Europe. It certainly hasn’t grown at the same rate in Africa but the rising global popularity of eSports cannot be ignored. Estimates suggest that eSports will have over 600 million viewers by 2022, up from 134 million just a decade previous. The explosive growth of eSports is not limited to just one country or region with global popularity rising at an impressive rate.