Will E-Sports Surpass Traditional Sports?
Competitive gaming is a very common form of entertainment, especially for today’s tech heavy generation. From gaming LAN parties, to Mario Kart and Halo 3 tournaments, the adrenaline rushes and friendships competitive gaming have brought me are unforgettable. But, what most never would have imagined is that moments like these would become a massive industry for competitors and viewers called e-sports.
E-sports, or competitive gaming, started back in the 1972 with the first ever organized gaming tournament. The tournament was held at Stanford University and had students competing against each other in a game titled, “Spacewar” for the grand prize of a year subscription of, The Rolling Stone.
Fast forward several decades and e-sports’ popularity has spread like wildfire, specifically between 2010 and 2019. e-sports is more popular than ever before with the industry finally crossing over the 1 Million dollar revenue mark here in 2019.
There are several different factors that made e-sports take off in these last 9 years, but the accessibility of online gaming and streaming these games are what have made the biggest difference. This can be seen in the most watched e-sport games as of 2018. The top-five most watched games are all massive online multiplayer strategy, card, and shooter games. Four of the top Five are free-to-play games as well, Overwatch being $59.99, adding to how accessibility has made e-sports more popular as well. A free game typically has a larger following, which translates directly into that following making or following e-sports teams centered around that specific game.
The chart above displays just how popular the top-five most watched games of e-sports truly are by highlighting the millions of hours fans watched each game. League of Legends, a free online MOBA game, dominates the esports watch-time category with a whopping 240 million hours. Even Hearthstone, a free online collective card game, has a massive 43 million hours of watch-time while only being the fifth most watched game in e-sports. This is truly impressive and shows how popular the industry has become.
With streaming services like Twitch and Mixr, watching e-sports has now become easier than ever before as well. It costs zero dollars to watch and cheer on your favorite e-sports team or league, the only thing needed is internet! That makes it stand out from leagues like the NFL and NBA, which typically have an expensive league pass to watch games that arent nationally televised.
Another aspect that makes e-sports a remarkable industry is it is far more inclusive than typical sporting leagues. A great example of this is e-sports athlete Mike Begum who was born with Arthrogryposis. Even with Begum’s physical disability he is able to compete with the best of the best, something that just is not possible on other sporting leagues.
E-sports is constantly changing what it means to be an “athlete.” There is no physical mold for an e-sport athlete, any man or women, no matter what genetic gifts they were given, can be an e-sports superstar.
With the large player base of the top-five e-sports games, there is no doubt e-sports athletes are incredibly diverse.
The chart above shows how many active players each popular e-sports game has. The international hit League of Legends again dominates with over 115 million active players in 2018. What is so interesting about that is that 115 million different people could become an e-sports athlete with the right passion and grind over the game.
The chart also highlights how far gaming has came in general. Once upon a time gaming was seen as almost a taboo. Now there are hundreds of millions of different gamers across several different games and consoles, making e-sports success almost inevitable.
With all the growth and success the e-sports industry is having, many gamers and sports fans alike have questioned whether one day e-sports will become more popular than regular sports.
The chart above compares search interest between three major sports leagues, the MLB, NFL, and the NBA, and that of e-sports over the past five years. The results clearly show that e-sports, while growing at a fast rate, is still no where in the realm of popularity that this major sports leagues are in.
While e-sports reaching 1 billion dollars in revenue this year was a huge success, it still does not compare to the massive revenues brought in by these major leagues. For example, the NFL brought in roughly 16 billion dollars in revenue from the last ‘18–19 season. It is clear from that alone, that even though e-sports is growing at a strong rate, it is still not nearly as large as these massive leagues.
With looking at things such as google trends and reading revenue reports of major sports leagues and the e-sports industry, it looks like it will be a long time before, or even if, that does happen.
E-sports has so much to celebrate and proud of. Is it going to become more popular than regular sports, that is something to ask 20 years from now when e-sports has further progressed. For now though, e-sports is just another great industry on the rise.
