What’s Behind the Massive Rise of eSports?

Anyone who’s been paying any attention to the gaming world will know just how big esports is becoming. It’s been on the rise for a while now, but its popularity has hit new levels in the past few years. Today, esports isn’t just a successful industry, but it’s also gaining more respect. Indeed, ‘becoming a professional gamer’ is now a legitimate (albeit difficult) goal for many people. And who could blame them? Professional gamers make, on average, $70,000 a year. For playing video games!

So how did we get here? Let’s take a look.

Changing Demographics

The rise of esports is a mystery to older generations yet positively normal to younger generations who have been watching players do their thing - as well as playing games themselves - since they were young. As the people in this demographic became a more significant part of society and had a greater influence on culture, the level of interest in esports began to grow. This is a reason why the future of esports looks so bright. The current crop of viewers might be the first demographic to watch gaming tournaments, but they certainly won’t be the last. The generation that comes next will arguably be even more enthusiastic about gaming competitions because gaming has an even bigger presence in their lives.

Ease of Access

People can’t learn to enjoy things if they’re located behind a paywall. If you’ve only had limited exposure to an activity, you’ll be unlikely to fork out mega-money to watch it as you won’t know what you’re missing out on. This is a problem that professional sports may have to deal with in the future. Younger generations aren’t engaging with traditional sports as much as previous generations. It’s reasonable to assume that this is because they’ve been priced out of the game.

And, well, the world of esports has been happy to take their business. You can begin watching esports with nothing more than a mobile; it’s all free to air on Twitch and other streaming sites. And it’ll likely always be that way. It seems unlikely that there’ll ever be pay-per-view esports tournaments.

The Broader eSports World

People out of the loop often wonder what draws people to sit down and watch somebody else play a video game. But there is, of course, much more to it than this. For one, the competitor is playing games that the viewer also plays, just to an extremely high standard. And there are ways to engage, too. You can follow the stories of the players. You can listen to podcasts about the tournament. You can legally bet on esports at these sites across the USA . All these things help to create a tournament that’s highly attractive to gaming fans.

Famous Faces

A movement can get rolling all on its own, but it’ll be unlikely to reach a wider audience if there are no familiar faces there to give it a push. In the esports world, there are plenty of famous faces who have lent their time, money, or just their image to the world. A host of famous soccer players, including Aguero, Gareth Bale, Thibaut Courtois, and Antoine Griezmann all have their fingers in the esports pie . Broader celebrities such as Mark Cuban, David Beckham, Tony Hawk, Michael Jordan, and Mike Tyson have all invested too. They help with exposure , but their involvement also suggests that esports has a very bright future. After all, the names on that list have a track record of success. Wouldn’t it be unlikely for all of these people to fail at the same time?

Money Talks

You don’t become a global phenomenon without an injection of cash. And that’s just what happened with esports. As soon as it became legitimate, the money began to flow in. Why? Because the world of esports is extremely interesting to advertisers. The “early 20s - 30 male” market has been historically difficult for advertisers to access. Yet that’s just the type of people who are watching esports. As the advertising revenues increase, so does the overall quality of the tournaments. And once that type of train begins rolling, the wheels rarely come off.

The Future

So, what does the future hold? It won’t be more of the same -- esports will continue to grow and develop. In fact, esports revenue in 2021 is expected to be $1 billion. By 2024, that number will have jumped to $1.4 billion. An 11% growth each year is extremely impressive. With viewer numbers going up all the time, it looks like the world of esports is here to stay.