Why racing games have not really caught on in e-sports so far

E-sports have experienced an enormous boom in recent years, with numerous tournaments, prize money in the millions and a steadily growing fan base. But while games like League of Legends, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive dominate the e-sports arena, racing games are more of a rarity. Why is that?

The racing genre requires more expertise

Racing games have not yet achieved the same popularity in e-sports as other genres. One reason for this could be the lack of versatility that games like Rocket League offer. Rocket League, a mix of football and car racing, has managed to appeal to a wider audience by combining two popular genres and creating a whole new gaming experience.

True racing games, such as the Formula 1 series, have a loyal fan base, but they are often not as accessible to casual gamers. The complex controls and required knowledge of each track and car can be both daunting and challenging for newcomers.

The excitement of a racing game is also different from other e-sports titles. While in a shooter or a MOBA the action on the screen is constantly changing and there can always be surprising twists and turns, racing games are often more predictable. Small subtleties that can make the difference between victory and defeat are often barely noticeable to outsiders. This can make them less attractive to spectators.

Racing games in eSports compared to traditional sports

The challenges that racing games have in the e-sports arena are also mirrored in the world of real sports. This is particularly evident when looking at the popularity of Formula 1 bet ting compared to betting on more varied sports such as football, ice hockey or NBA, where there is a higher clock frequency and more unpredictable moments. Formula 1 is much less popular in the betting world and more popular with people who out themselves as true racing fans. With mass sports like football, on the other hand, it is much more common for people to place bets who are less intensively involved in the background, statistics or fine details of the sport in their everyday lives. It is this dynamism and diversity of classic sports that attracts both spectators and betting fans and leads to racing games being less popular in both the eSports and betting sectors.

This is then ultimately also made clear by the fact that a game like Rocket League, which cannot really be assigned to the racing genre, was able to prevail over real racing games in the eSports sector in the end and appears in practically every popularity list of PC games with an eSports character. For outsiders and spectators, it simply offers more entertaining entertainment and more dynamics than an F1 race that drags on for hours and in which there are often hardly any position changes in the course of the race.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it remains to be seen whether the popularity of racing games in e-sports will increase in the future. Combining elements from different genres, as was done successfully with Rocket League, could be a possible way to appeal to a broader audience and bring more excitement into the game. At the same time, the increasing popularity of e-sports in general could also open up new opportunities for the future development of racing games.