An Introduction to eSports and Its Rise in The Industry

More likely than not, many of us have played a video game at least once in our lives. Whether it be on a video game console, phone, or internet, we are all familiar with playing games and its verb “gaming.” At its early stages of development, games were merely played for their entertainment value, such as during a slow train ride or a boring day at home, or when you needed something to do to kill time. “Over the latter half of the twentieth century games have grown in visual fidelity and complexity allowing for more skill to be applied resulting in very good players emerging and standing out from the average gamer at the time. This led to competitions and championships being held for many games and professional gaming starting to emerge” (Hewitt, 2014). Now-a-days, gaming has completely evolved from just being a time killer. Merit such as full college scholarships are now being awarded for being skilled at a game. Even so, people are still not convinced that gaming is no longer what it once was – a “waste of time.”

eSports is a term many people are not familiar with. eSports, or electronic sports, is “considered equivalent to ‘professional gaming’, a competitive way of playing computer games within a professional setting” (Wagner, 2006). Surprising to some, the eSports industry is already massive and it will only keep growing. “While precise numbers are not known… a worldwide audience of 71 million people… watch competitive gaming in 2014. In 2015, the viewership statistics reported by Riot Games, the publisher of League of Legends (LoL), reported 36 million unique viewers for the world finals. The number of players active in the gaming community is increasing, with… a reported 27 million daily active players” (Schubert, 2016). The eSports fanbase and playerbase is incredibly large – compare these numbers to the viewership numbers of sports events and it is even more shocking.

Figure 1: Viewership numbers of several sports events in 2013 (Hollist, 2015)

It is baffling to believe that more people would watch people playing video games than people playing sports such as basketball and baseball. As stated before, the eSports industry is huge. “It would not be surprising if these gaming tournaments and teams were advertised on mainstream television in the coming years” (Hope, 2014).

References

Hewitt, E. (2014). Will eSports Ever Become Widely Accepted as Official Sports and How Will They Affect the Way We Entertain Ourselves If They Do?

Hollist, K. E. (2015). TIME TO BE GROWN-UPS ABOUT VIDEO GAMING: THE RISING ESPORTS INDUSTRY AND THE NEED FOR REGULATION. ARIZONA LAW REVIEW, 57(3), 823-847.

Hope, A. (2014). The Evolution of the Electronic Sports Entertainment Industry and its Popularity.

Schubert, M., Drachen, A., & Mahlmann, T. (2016, February). Esports Analytics Through Encounter Detection. MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

Wagner, M. G. (2006, January). On the Scientific Relevance of eSports.