How Professional Video Gamers Train for a World Championship

The professional video game industry (eSports) is a $1.5B business and is the fastest growing spectator sport.

Last year, 258M unique viewers watched live streams of other people playing video games.

Still not impressed? That is a larger audience than every NFL regular season game combined!

191M watch at least once per month.

Viewers for eSports championship vs. Super Bowl:
1) Super Bowl (2018) — 106M
2) Extreme Masters (2017) — 46M

Sanctioned sport? The National Federation of State High School Associations recently recommended that eSports be classified with other sports such as football. This would be the first new sport since lacrosse in 2000.

College programs:
1) Club — 475
2) Varsity w/ scholarship — 50

Watch: ESports and the rise of the digital athlete

More #1: Videogame Stars Have Fans, Fortunes — and Utterly Baffled Parents

More #2: Why Amazon — Not Activision Blizzard — Could Be the Biggest Winner in Esports