The Enormous Business Potential Of eSports

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eSports is increasing in popularity at the speed of digital. Only a few years ago, games like FIFA and mortal combat were the ones to be in the center of attention. Now, with the drastic development of the field and inclusion of the latest technologies, eSport became even more watched and even more competitive sports than baseball, basketball, and football, esports encompasses competitions across a variety of video games.

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Many people perceive eSports as a way of escaping from the unemployment of the twenty-something age, which is obviously way more than this. While the attitude is changing time by time, step by step, there are still many people who would try to prove the other way around. If only they knew that more people watched the 2016 world finals of popular esports game League of Legends, 43 million viewers, which is more than the NBA Finals Game 7 that year, 31 million viewers.

Besides the huge popularity of esports as an activity and esports as sports, it has become one of the biggest opportunities for investing your capital and has opened doors for monetization opportunities as well. An interesting fact is also that while esports has already taken its leading position in the charts, the crypto platforms for esports are just increasing in popularity. There are some very real examples, talking about the dynamic tendency of people engaging more in esports and the massive migration towards crypto platforms.

The most popular eSport games

Though the actual rankings of the most popular esports games change slightly month-to-month, the ten most-watched games on dominant streaming site Twitch remain consistent. As of right now, League of Legends remains the most-watched esport in the world. It’s also worth noting, for those less familiar with esports, that the most popular games are not traditional sports-related video games such as FIFA. Rather, the popular esports genres include multiplayer online battle arenas, where a player controlling a single character in a team that must destroy the opposing team’s main building, real-time strategy, where a player builds an army to gain dominance over a map, or first-person shooter games, where players take part in a firefight across a ma).

Players

While there are different games, they all differ according to the genres, strategies, and type of players. Becoming a top esports player is almost as difficult as playing for the NBA. To get through the rising talent and specialize among the professional players, the player develops a variety of skills which are determined by the competitive play and the extensive gameplay. Some players even train for 14 hours a day, and many of them even train physically in order to stay fit and have more energy to spend during the gameplay. This activity has long overcome the traditional understanding of sitting in front of the screen and has become one of the most expensive sports all around the world, with millions as a daily turnover.

Though, while getting back to the type of players, we may divide them into two main segments. Gamers who Livestream themselves as they play video games are referred to as streamers. This is typically done in casual play. While streaming can be incredibly profitable, many streamers have to decide whether they want to stream for a living or try and play professionally and run the risk of making less money. With that said, not all streamers have the skill to play professionally. Instead, some simply have "streaming personalities" that viewers find entertaining to follow, donate to, and subscribe to. This can create impressive revenue streams for the most successful. For example, the most popular YouTube channel in the world belongs to a video game streamer who goes by the name of PewDiePie. He has such a polarizing style that viewers often find him either highly delightful or incredibly annoying, and currently has close to 57 million YouTube subscribers., making over 7$ m at the beginning of his career.

The few who rise to the professional level compete in tournaments all around the world against the best teams. During the journey, they usually build up a fan base for themselves as well as for the teams and organizations they play for. Successful pro gamers can earn digit salaries or even millions. Top players often start professionally around age 16 or 17 and then tend to retire around age 24. Of course, there is variation across different games and publishers, but esports professionals generally start and end their careers much earlier than the average professional athlete. Retired esports professionals may opt to stream themselves, coach esports teams, start their own team, work for publishers, or finish their involvement with esports.

The professions, as well as nonprofessionals, are often seen on the gameplay of the languages. League tournaments are run by companies such as Major League Gaming (MLG) or the Electronic Sports League (ESL). Leagues include the North America League of Legends Championships Series, the Call of Duty World League (organized by MLG), or the Pro League for CS: GO (organized by ESL).

The stats

It has been official that esports has reached over 380 million players yet in 2017. There are 191 million esports enthusiasts among those numbers and 194 occasional viewers. The number of enthusiasts is projected to grow by 50% by the end of 2020, totaling 286 million.

The upcoming year should see esports grow to approximately $700 million, a growth of 41% from the previous year and an increase from $325 million in 2015. Revenues are projected to reach $1.5 billion by the end of this year.