The Rise of Competitive Esports Across the Globe
Esports are continually evolving, global representation has grown massively as has prize money. Different games popularity, and how we play and interact with each other within them has changed dramatically. Improvements in technology has helped make this possible, and there is also the social culture that has formed esports as we know it today.
For the new generation, esports and gaming has become an accepted part of the lifestyle. It is sometimes difficult to keep track of this fast-developing industry and how it has transformed into the global phenomena that they are today.
A project called “The Champions of Esports”(2017), by Unibet has tracked competitive esports over the last 10 years and gives a guide to just how the esports landscape has shifted. It makes for interesting reading.
The number of viewers has risen steadily since 2012, reaching 162 million frequent viewers and 161 million occasional viewers in 2016. Projections estimate this will almost double that by 2020. Already, more US male millennials watch esports as they do baseball or icehockey.
Although it leveled off in 2016, the number of players playing esports professionally has also risen rapidly.
In terms of prize money, Dota2 is by far the highest paid game. Due to the huge prize pool offered for the International tournament, Dota2’s overall prize money almost doubles that of second place League of Legends. Top earning team the Evil Geniuses have won a total of $15.43 across 632 tournaments. Dota2 makes up a total of 88.26% of that.
How Esports has Grown Globally
The United States makes up by far the highest proportion of players in esports, with 2,891 active players. The US dominance has been aided by investment and interest created in esports from celebrites, such as Shaquille O’Neal, Jimmy Rollins and Alez Rodriguez (NRG eSports), or Magic Johnson (Team Liquid). The availability of US college scholarships for esports is an additional factor.
However, popular games in the US, like Super Smash Bros, Halo and Call of Duty tend to have smaller payouts — hence China’s position at the top of the for Country prize winnings leaderboard.
The statistics for player density (esports professionals per million population) show a strong upward trend for Scandinavian countries, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. Proportionally more professional players come from these countries than USA or China.
Esports has become truly global, very fast. And of course, we are just at the beginning.
EIPlatform is developing a global platform to enable direct interaction within the esports community. We strongly believe that we can help make a difference to the future growth of this exciting industry.
Please find more information about EIP on our website:
Website: EiPlatform
