Rise of Esports
An insight into why more than 440 million viewers watched online gaming competitions from around the world in 2019.
You may have heard this term before — Esports or eSports. Perhaps you may have watched one. But why playing games on devices like PC/laptops/smartphones became a sensational sporting opportunity? To understand this, we need to dig deep.
When was it started?
On 19th October 1972, Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University (LAISU) conducted the world’s first esports tournament. They named it the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics, where they played Space Invaders game. Since then, developments came in.
Evolution
In 1998, the legendary game of its time, Starcraft 2, garnered more than 50 million viewers on their esports tournament. Twitch alone shared 17 million of this massive number.
With the 2000s rolling in, momentum in the industry gained a galloping pace. Hosting players became the most influential. Major League Gaming, launched in 2002, is now amongst the leaders in hosting space of esports. Money started spilling in, and cash prizes rose in millions.
As latest as 2019, esports like Dota 2 International and Fortnite World Cup had a prize pool of more than $30 million.
Who are the key players?
Now, when it comes to key players, this is not restricted to the two opponents playing the game in a tournament. There are a lot of parties. So, let’s find who’s who and why they play an important role in this.
Developers
Unless they create the game, there are no esports. They are the ones who look at the potentials in the market and make these games in the first place. Originally, any developer creates the game and then finds a publisher who then distributes the game and helps it to reach the markets. Some developers like Electronic Arts (EA) have their own developer’s team who create the games in-house and as per the requirements of the publisher.
There is one more category called the indie developers who are small scale publishers cum developers. The difference is in their budgets and the ability to take new ideas. Publishers (bigger ones) are largely skeptical when it comes to taking new ideas.
Publishers
Publishers are the big fishes of the industry. Traditionally, they used to find small developer companies and help them in reaching the market. Now, many big names have an in-house team of developers who develop games based on the needs of the publishers. Still, publishers are open to small developer companies; if they find potential in the games created by them can become the next hit.
Gamers/players
They are the ones who use these games. There are other parties involved in the supply chain of the gaming industry, but we are not here to delve into that nitty-gritty. We aim to discuss the parties involved in the esports industry.
Every game’s target is to cater to a large number of players who would form a community and play the game together. More successful is the game when more is its penetration and more prominent the community it can create. Response from the players around the world leads to the development of the game into an esports opportunity.
Now, here’s a thing, not all games qualify to become an esports game. Games, where the multiplayer facility is allowed, is the minimum requisite. These games can be either team-based or individualistic. The purpose is to bring two or more players/teams against each other and organise an event where competition can be raised, and the last man/team standing can be declared the winner.
Sponsors
They are the ones who put in their money and help the organisers to run the event. The usual formula is — bigger the gaming community, higher chances of a massive endowment from sponsors on the event. Sponsoring is possible only when the game has the potential to attract an audience.
Their importance oscillates from medium to high. It all depends on who is sponsoring the event. It is also observed that sometimes sponsors become the reason for the grand success of the events. When big players like Coca-Cola and Samsung entered the esports industry, fans were awed by their presence in their favorite event.
Streaming platforms
Another important player is the streaming platform or platforms. Any sporting without fan following is a complete waste. The same is in the case of esports. But to cater to such a massive audience, one can not accommodate it in the arena where the esports are conducted. Like any other sport, it needs to be broadcasted, and this is where the streaming platforms come in.
Twitch, Smashcast, YouTube, etc. are some big players in the streaming industry. Twitch is the oldest amongst all mentioned and is the most popular in gaming communities. These platforms are used as partners for broadcasting esports events for the audience who is unable to come to the arena to watch their favorite player playing the game live.
Teams
Traditionally, a bunch of players would come together and play the games as a team and would do everything on their own. With the industry growing at such a large scale, the need for investment rose, and gradually, formal team creation culture came into existence.
These teams are well funded by the owners (usually big investors) and provide state-of-the-art facilities to the players. In return, players of the team need to win as many esports as possible to keep the brand running. Like any other sporting team, esports teams rely on merchandising and ticketing. The rate of victory decides the value of any brand’s merchandise.
Some team owners, to maintain regular cash flows, divest into multiple games. Teams like Cloud9, Fnatic, etc. have teams of PUBG, Counter-Strike: Global Offense, Clash of Clans, etc. where they try winning at each game. The brand’s popularity remains singular, yet fan following can be diluted because not everyone follows every game.
Hosts
These are the companies whose specialisation is in organising these massive esports events. They bring all the players (stakeholders) on board and help them to conduct one such event. We can also call them the facilitators of esports competition.
Internationally, Major League Gaming is one of the biggest hosting companies, but in India, Nodwin Gaming is the major player in hosting events.
Fans
They are the ones who make any sporting event grand. Without fans, neither of the players would be interested in esports, perhaps in any sports. Fans are the lifelines of all the previous stakeholders mentioned, ergo becoming the essential stakeholder from the business standpoint.
Now there are other stakeholders as well, but neither we found them important enough to be added to the list, nor are they much relevant to the Indian esports industry because it is currently in its early phase.
What are the prospects of this industry?
If you ask this question to any person who is a part of this industry, the answer will be clear and simple — very much!
By looking at the above data, one can definitely call it bright. With a promising YoY growth rate of 1.7% in the existing markets, it does have potential. And gradually, this industry is spreading its tentacles to many more markets where they either have less penetration or no penetration.
What about India?
India is a new market, but a promising one. The pattern of growth is slightly different from the rest of the world. In India, mobile phones became the starting point of esports, not those traditional PCs or gaming consoles. This was well expected because India is a poor market.
Building a gaming PC is very expensive, and upgrading it to the needs of the games played upon it is secondary expenditure. Therefore, buying a Rs. 20,000 ($300 approximately) smartphone becomes an easy option. Mobile games like Clash of Clans can be called the flag-bearers of esports in India. But, PUBG Mobile can be acclaimed as the real game-changer for esports in India.
Who are the prominent stakeholders in India?
We can assort the list based on the stakeholders’ list we mentioned above.
- Developer /publisher — BlueHole, Krafton Game Union, Supercell, Garena International, Activision Publishing, Gameloft, etc.
- Gamers/players — To be fair, many. But to name a few, from PUBG Mobile, we have Naman Mathur, a.k.a. MortaL, Tanmay Singh a.k.a. Scout, Adii Sawant, a.k.a. Dynamo, Chetan Chandgude, a.k.a. Kronten, etc.
- Sponsors — Oneplus India, Airtel, Mountain Dew, Qualcomm, etc.
- Streaming platforms — YouTube, Twitch, Mixer, Hitbox, etc.
- Teams — Fnatic, TSM Entity, GXR Racer Celtz, 8Bit, Soul, etc.
- Hosts — Nodwin Gaming
Many of the above stakeholders represent the most prominent game in the country right now — PUBG Mobile.
Gaming as passion and career is something that is still not perceived by many in India. Mostly, the parents are skeptical when it comes to selecting this as a career opportunity. However, it is no different from any other sport. You need to practice a lot, entry is difficult (at least in the mainstream), career span is short, etc.
The skepticism is understandable, as well. It is just like cricket in India. We can say that we are in the stage where our previous generation was in after winning the 1983 Cricket World Cup. The love for the game grew, and so did the players playing the game. But not everyone qualified to play for the Indian Cricket Team. Still, being in the nascent stage, and with a better entry option, you have opportunities in esports.
Interestingly, the IOC (International Olympics Council) decided to put an esports event as a run-up event during the Japan Olympics. In fact, Asian Games did it already in their last edition at Jakarta. So, it can be well said that esports is the future, not only in India but around the globe.
The views in the article are personal.
