The pandemic has negatively impacted many businesses and different industries. However, there were a few ones that somehow greatly benefited from the health crisis and this includes the esports segment. Last year, the esports industry’s value was able to surpass 1 billion US dollars and this is almost a 50 percent increase from the previous year.
Compared to the overall worth of the video games industry, what esports was able to reach last year may not be easily appreciated by many. The video game industry is now worth over 174 billion USD, and even if esports only account for a small portion of this, it is still heading somewhere. Last year was just really a great year for the esports sector.
During the lockdowns, people had to stay at home, and to avoid boredom and to cope with the stress that the pandemic is causing, many tried to find new activities at home. Thanks to the internet and technology, there are just so many things that people can do online including gaming. People downloaded games and even started to show interest in esports tournaments by downloading the Betway app for android and other apps where they can follow different gaming tournaments all over the world.
Why Esports is Gaining More Attention
Even if it may seem like it, esports isn’t exactly something new. However, the industry itself is still in its infancy. The first-ever recorded video game competition happened in 1972 at Stanford University. It was a match between five students who played Spacewar. The grand prize was a year’s subscription to Rolling Stone Magazine. A few years after this, Atari then held the very first Space Invaders Championship with over 10,000 participants.
At that point, gaming tournaments weren’t online. It was only in the 90s when the use of the internet boomed and this was when people can finally play with anyone anywhere else in the world. It was in 2000 onward when esports tournaments really kicked off and it was initially extremely popular in Asia, particularly South Korea.
Today, esports is getting bigger not only in Asia but also in different parts of the world. It’s easy to see why this is something that many are starting to show interest in. People will always enjoy watching competitions and this is why traditional sports are also popular. Esports tournaments are just like any other sports event.
Another factor that also helped boost esports is how video games are becoming more accessible and this is mainly thanks to mobile technology. Back then, esports tournaments are exclusive to PC and console gaming but times are changing and the mobile market is dominating the gaming industry.
It is already estimated that mobile gaming accounts for almost 50 percent of the whole gaming industry. Statista also reports that by the year 2023, the mobile gaming market should be able to surpass the value of over 100 billion. With that, it’s not impossible that mobile gaming will dominate the video game industry in the future.
Mobile gaming is much more accessible since people would rather spend money on a smartphone device than a gaming PC setup or a gaming console. Smartphones are also becoming cheaper yet more powerful. It also helps that mobile internet connections are also getting better. The 5G connection is now becoming more widespread and this allows mobile gaming to be taken to another level. With 5G, cloud gaming will most likely boom as well and this means that mobile gamers will be able to access any games they want with their mobile device.
Popular Esports Tournaments
Esports fans are now starting to have a lot to watch as more and more games are starting to have tournaments of their own. What’s also helping boost the popularity of esports is how there are now online platforms that cater to the industry like Facebook Gaming, Twitch, and YouTube.
When it comes to the games that are popularly played on esports tournaments, there are a lot but there are a few that are known for the prize pool. There is The International 9 for Valve’s DOTA 2 which has a total prize pool of 34.3 million US dollars.
Epic Games’ Fortnite is also on the top spot with the 2019 Fortnite World Cup Finals with a prize pool of 30.4 million USD. The 2018 League of Legends World Championship had 6.4 million USD. The 2020 Honor Kings World Champion Cup had over 4.5 million USD and the 2019 PUBG Global Championship with over 4 million USD.
The prize pool in these tournaments just shows how serious gaming could be. It’s hard to ignore how this industry is doing so well and BBC did report that the rise of esports last year is just really a scratching the surface. Thus, we can fully expect that esports will get bigger and more popular in the future!
Esports is growing, but I don’t think it’s growing that substantially, especially with lockdowns. It’s just that more people are looking into games, when they’re just stuck at home almost all day, almost every aspect of gaming rises in popularity (mobile games, esports, social games, etc.). I’m sure it’ll dwindle a bit, once people go back to their normal lives after lockdowns are lifted, but a number of places (especially populous places) still have lockdowns.