In Netflix’s “Explained: eSports”, the narrator paints a picture about how much the field of eSports has grown since 2012, with viewership increasing 600% by 2017. Further, she explains that major companies are investing big in the sport, with a whole arena being built in Las Vegas.
One major roadblock of eSports is accessibility, so it was hard for the field to take off until the early 2000s when broadband started to be adopted worldwide. This adoption made an entirely new community of people who can play these games together and compete. As competitions grow, the payout for different competitions became comparable to that of basketball and football, with a top prize in 2017 being 25 million dollars; in fact, this amount of growth led to the NBA creating its very own eSports league.
It’s really interesting to see how quickly esports have grown since the creation of gaming, with the majority of growth happening in the last 10 years. Considering the first games came out in the early 70s, if there were broadband internet available to everyone back then, I bet eSports would be just as lucrative and followed as the top physical sports today. I also think it would be interesting to see the projection of eSports crossed against soccer/basketball/football for the next 10 years, because if it continues to grow at the current trend, then it may be more successful than sports like the NBA.
Zach, I wanted to comment on your post because my brother is OBSESSED with eSports. When he first started playing, I remember a lot of technical issues/bugs with the games and the inaccuracies in the players’ look/dress. Now, as technology has advanced, eSports have allowed people to immerse themselves in this sports world and it makes people feel like they are part of something larger.
Hi Zach. I too am very interested to see what will come of the eSports industry. As you mentioned will eSports become more popular than regular sports. My only fear about this possibility is that kids will grow up favoring video games rather than learning and participating in the actual sports themselves.