The eSport industry is the number one fastest growing sport industry, even above emerging sports such as bouldering and korfball. If you haven’t heard of any of these before, this is not the article to explain, but check out in your own time. Well then, onto the growth within eSports.

What is eSports?

The definition of which is any online/LAN event where 2 or more professional players compete individually or in teams to win a game. Usually for money or progression in a tournament. Before we go any further LAN (Local Area Network) is when a tournament is held on server or “in house”.  The most prominent eSports at the moment are Dota 2, CSGO, League of Legends and Star Craft II. They are ranked below in order to views.

This massive growth of people simply just watching the games have lead to an exponential increase in revenue through sponsorships, prizes and more:

Why then do many people take this as a joke or don’t even know it at all. Well the answer to this question lies with the previous generation (Writing this from a young adults perspective) People who were born before the GameBoy even was a thing. They simply cannot understand what all the fuss is about, watching someone else play a game, its preposterous. However, they are not all lost hopes, as using the analogy of “why then do you watch football”, wait for them to try to reply. Then they have an understanding. INFACT you can even bet on eSports now, which every sports fan will be able to get their heads around that eSports is here to stay.

eSports is not only a lucrative business for the players but also for game developers. EA SPORTS now have a FIFA eSports World Cup were the best player around the world fly out to major events, recently Barcelona. To compete against others for prize money and at the end of the year after many qualifying rounds someone is crowned FIFA Player of the Year. Is there a better way for a gaming developer to advertise their products than having professional gamers compete on their platform? I think not. Even companies are seeing this as a massive opportunity to sponsor players, who use their name and wear the logo on their shirts, like UNILAD and even professional football teams like Paris Saint Germain.

This industry will grow to over 1bnUSD in 2019 in revenues, so why doesn’t everyone now just join in. The answer is, it is one of the most exclusive job openings around at the moment. Not only must you own an expensive computer, but you must be in the top 0.005% of players in your game to even be recognised, even then you must live in an area which is easily accessible. This is where the new emerging of eSports like speed running emerged. They require older machinery and anyone can practise at the top level.

Statistics provided by Newzoo