- Esports has become a staple in contemporary competition
- Many regions have seen great growth in esports viewership, with Asia as one of the top regions
- Specialists predict that esports’ rise to prominence is just beginning
Esports continues to grow with viewership numbers and revenues increasing greatly in certain regions.
Esports Has Become a Staple
Esports’ rise to prominence continues. Over the last few years, professional gaming has exited obscurity. It is now an acknowledged form of competition with hundreds of events each year. Some of them offer millions of dollars in prizes for the winners.
Esports is not only an exciting way for people to compete but a whole industry that provides jobs to hundreds of people. Athletes don’t exist in a vacuum and are supported by a myriad of professionals such as managers, casters, content creators, marketing specialists and so on.
This growth provides a lot of opportunities to emerging markets. India has been one of the countries that have welcomed esports. Currently, numerous Indian teams compete in various events and represent their country on the global scene. The same applies to Latin America whose budding esports market has attracted a plethora of investors.
Esports Are Welcomed in Asia
Southeast Asia has also seen a great interest in competitive gaming with some of the biggest SEA events having a peak audience of millions of locals.
Asia, in particular, has been very welcoming to the idea of esports and has already had a few events where certain esports titles were played as medal sports. There are even more such events on the way. Despite gaming facing some hurdles in China, Asian teams and athletes continue to work for the popularization of the esports discipline.
It was estimated that esports viewership in Asia has increased by 21% between 2019 and 2020. Translating this into numbers, there were around 618.4 million spectators in 2020 against 510 million in 2019. Thanks to this increased interest, esports revenues also saw an increase of 4.9%. According to statistics, Asian esports yielded $543.8 million in 2020 alone.
Experts project further growth for the Asian market throughout 2022.
Esports’ Growth Has Just Begun
The world as a whole has greatly warmed up towards gaming. Even the Olympic Committee couldn’t just sit on the sidelines and joined the esports fun with competitions in a few sports simulation games. The committee is still reluctant to promote games that depict violence but is happy to showcase competitions in less action-oriented titles. The Olympic Committee isn’t the only sports association that has shown interest in sports. Other sports bodies have also signed various deals with esports organizations.
Weirdly, COVID-19 had beneficial effects on the esports industry and esports betting in particular. While other sports couldn’t hold their leagues, esports just opted for an online format.
Newzoo projects that worldwide esports revenues will increase to $1.6 billion by 2024. It will be exciting to see whether that number is an overstatement or an understatement.
