The eSports Market is predicted to be worth around $1 Billion by 2019 – but what is eSports and why is it so popular?
eSports is basically electronic sports – video game matches, not necessarily sports in the literal sense, viewed by thousands, with famous players raking in salaries of seven figures.
Because eSports, just like a real sport, allows for competition between players or teams, the demand for its entertainment came about and thus an industry started growing around the increasingly popular eSports genre. Then, along came Twitch back in 2011, giving eSports tournaments a true meaning and purpose. Players and teams of eSports received the opportunity to make a name and even a brand for themselves, as more and more people started getting interested in online streaming.
However, for the first few years, progress was slow – there weren’t many people who felt eSports were normal. It required a few years for the generation who have grown up not knowing what life is like without such technology, and thus the audiences of these eSport tournaments started to grow exponentially.
What are the current popular eSports games?
As mentioned above, one of the popular eSports games is League of Legends – a multiplayer online battle arena video game, released back in 2009. In 2016, the game boasted its biggest prize pool to date, with just over $5 million up for grabs.
The game with the biggest prize pool, however, is Dota 2. It holds the record for biggest prize pool with a whopping $20,770,640. Dota 2 (short for “Defense of The Ancients 2”) is actually a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena. This was the first game that tried out crowdsourcing for prize money. Due to its success, other games, such as League of Legends, followed foot, and managed to increase their prize pool to astonishing amounts.
The Predicted Future of eSports
Newzoo has shown that the industry of eSports has experienced growth in the double digits for a good few years, with around 148 million fans of the popular game genre globally. This number is expected to increase to around 215 million by 2019. In fact, “League of Legends” saw an audience of around 36 million for its World Championship in 2015 – the NBA Finals didn’t even get that many viewers!
Because of this projected increase, it has been predicted that by 2019, the eSports industry will smash the $1 billion mark. With the hype of eSports currently truly getting underway, it’s not hard to believe that this predicted may well come true.
