Don’t Know a Thing about Esports? Here’s Five Places to Start
Never watched an Esports tournament before? Want to get more coverage of the industry? Here’s a list of five places to start.
1. Twitch
Twitch is arguably one of the most influential streaming platforms out there. While it’s open for any and all gaming live streams, live esports definitely had its boom through Twitch’s platform. Research firm Newzoo, which specializes in video game audiences, says that fans watched 475.5 million hours of esports content via Twitch in 2015. League of Legends and Counter Strike: Global Offensive were the two most-watched games in 2015, according to Twitch. IGN ( a San Francisco–based games and entertainment media company) reported that 27 million people watched the ESL Cologne 2015 tournament. Despite all of that, I’m still a bit behind on the Twitch bandwagon. I’m way more of a YouTube person, but there are a few streamers that I’ve found that I enjoy.
2. YouTube Gaming
For those who prefer YouTube’s tried and true format and style, YouTube Gaming is a familiar format capitalizing on a new industry. Since its launch last year, YouTube has proven that it’s very aware of what its consumers want. Newzoo CEO Peter Warman says half of all gamers in the U.S. watch gaming content on Youtube. That’s pretty strong competition with Twitch, where only 21% of gamers watch content regularly.
I’ve been watching YouTube for years, and that probably has something to do with why I’m not on Twitch as often. I tend to enjoy singular players rather than watching an entire team play, and YouTube’s interface and usability is familiar and easy. I’m particularly a big fan of RoosterTeeth’s Achievement Hunter, a team of gamers that usually do pre-recorded, edited videos known as “Let’s Plays,” but they’ve been broadening their videos to include more live videos.
3. ESPN’s Esports Section
You know a sports industry is getting serious when ESPN dedicates an entire section to it. Their online esports section launched in 2015, and continues to make competitive gaming more mainstream. In an interview with TIME Magazine, ESPN Editor in Chief Chad Millman said an esports-themed magazine issue was first pitched in 2014. ESPN started looking at esports coverage more closely after the success of that issue, Millman said.
“From our perspective, there’s a group of people within ESPN who have been engaged in esports and saying ‘Wow, this is really cool and we’ve got to get involved,’ and also people who were just mad gamers and preaching the quality of the competition and that this was an audience we wanted to get to,”Chad Millman said, in his TIME interview.
Not every story can be streamed live, which is why I appreciate ESPN’s coverage. Call me old-fashioned, but I still like to read my news sometimes.
4. Dot Esports
It’s worth mentioning Daily Dot’s esports coverage, now known as Dot Esports. It used to be a subsection of the Dot, before getting its own separate launch in 2013. An investigation into match-fixing in the game Counter Strike: Global Offensive resulted in one of the top teams being banned permanently from the game in 2015. Match-fixing refers to the strategic planning of teams to intentionally lose games so that gamblers could get a bigger payload.
They also wrote about Martin Shkreli, the infamous pharmaceutical businessman, and his failed business venture into esports. Despite that one of the Dot’s biggest writers was hired by ESPN last year, and rumors that Dot Esports would be taken down, it seems like the internet golden child isn’t going anywhere.
I appreciate Dot for the same reasons I appreciate ESPN. I wasn’t as aware of some of the bigger controversies that got Dot cemented into the esports news market, but I still like having multiple places to read about some of the more complicated esports issues.
5. Esports Earnings
It’s not a traditional news site, but Esports Earnings is a great place for numbers. It provides lists of recent winners, team rosters, tournaments, and exactly what kind of prize money they’re taking home. The next time someone says competitive gaming isn’t a professional sport show them this site.
I’m not crazy about the color scheme they’ve got here, and the site does sort of just throw a lot of information at the screen. I still think it’s an important component when talking about esports, but damn, I would really appreciate a good web designer here.
Give Me the Whole Package
According to Newzoo, more than 470 million viewers watch online gaming content on a regular basis. Newzoo’s research also says that the global Esports economy reached $493 million in 2016, and predicts it will grow to $696 million in 2017.
I would love to see an esports aggregate site that combines the best of these five sites. Give me numbers with sexy visuals. Give me in-depth reporting that illustrates the unique issues in the industry. Give me streams, but also give me recaps and highlights. So far, I haven’t seen one particular site or publication give esports the broad scope of coverage other sports industries have seen. Rather than have six tabs open every time there’s a tournament, hopefully we’ll get to a place where just one site will offer the whole package.
