The Places Where the Lines Between Esports and Real Life Sports Merge

Esports are not new. Some of the leagues that we know today have been around for the best part of two decades, with many other competitions coming before them. For example, Major League Gaming, which is one of the largest competitions in the US has been running since 2002, while DreamHack began in 1994.

Huge and Growing Demand

Esports have been making a lot of headlines in recent years, as their popularity has increased exponentially. Exact viewing figures are difficult to compile as each league reports slightly different stats, however, Whitman Syracuse University has reported that approximately 250 million fans watched esports competitions in 2018, while eMarketer went further, reporting a figure closer to 400 million. 

This rose again in 2019, with Newzoo’s Global Esports Market Report claiming 454 million fans tuned into esports competitions in 2019. They also forecasted that global esports viewership would reach 645 million people by 2022. 

These figures all miss the viewing figures from China as they are not always available for the same time frames. However, it has been estimated that over 300 million watch esports in China alone, meaning close to 1 billion people around the world follow these competitions. 

Commercial Interests

It’s not just interest from fans that's growing either. Esports has become a huge market for sponsors looking to grow their brand associations with video gaming. This includes huge investments from Intel, Dell, and Red Bull who have sponsored several leagues and tournaments.

Game developers and publishers are also throwing their weight behind the industry with competitions like the Call of Duty League which was launched by Activision in 2020. 

Esports even made it into the 2018 Asian Games, a multisport event similar to the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games. There had been hopes that the International Olympic Committee may incorporate some esports competitions into its list of events. 

However, in late 2019 it quashed this when it ruled out the prospect of esports being included in the Olympics any time soon. Instead, it said it wanted to focus on traditional sports and to “promote physical and mental health”. 

Blurring the Lines

While the International Olympic Committee might not be interested in having esports, the line between traditional sports and esports is getting blurred. 

One example of this is poker, which could be categorized as both traditional sport and an esport. Playing poker online is a popular activity among both professionals and amateurs, with a wide range of online poker platforms to choose from. These online games and tournaments are often streamed online through services like Twitch, a popular platform for esports and video game players to also stream their games. 

Both poker and other esports games also have online qualification competitions that are open to the public. Success in these competitions can secure a place in the professional tournaments which are often held at large venues, with audiences and media coverage. 

Real Sports Investing in Esports

The line has been blurred further still in recent years, with the operators of major sports leagues and championships launching their own esports competitions. Well established leagues include the NBA 2K League and the Formula 1 Esports Series, both of which have been operating for several years.

Each team in the esports leagues are linked to the teams in the real-life competitions too, although players/drivers aren’t the same.

In England, the Premier League has also been operating an esports league called the ePremier League. It first ran in 2019, using the EA Sports game FIFA 19, and continued for a second season in 2020.

The National Hockey League also has an esports league called the NHL Gaming World Championship, while Major League Baseball plans to launch one in China. 

These leagues are investing in esports to help strengthen their brands in the new esports market, prevent others from moving into the sports video game niche, and as a tool to attract new fans to their real-life leagues. 

While video games were once exclusively in the realm of amateurs, in just the space of a few decades they have become a billion-dollar industry and have attracted hundreds of millions of fans.