Esports is an industry full of passion and fun. Kids are even discovering a career within the gaming industry may no longer be as far-fetched as it seemed a decade ago. Though relatively new, competitive gaming has already grown significantly in revenue and popularity with the promise of more to come as it becomes an integral part of mainstream culture.
What are Esports?
You have likely heard the term ‘esports’ in passing with the continuous rise of video games to new and larger audiences. Even those who don’t “game” probably remember the summer of Pokémon Go, know someone who spent hours on the latest Animal Crossing, are aware of Twitch streaming, or saw movies featuring video games (such as Ready Player One and The Super Mario Bros. Movie). The increasing visibility through media, news, and cultural trends, has done a lot to bring video games out of niche circles into the forefront of society.
Esports exist as a facet of this industry. At its most basic, the shortform for electronic sports encompasses all manner of professional video game competitions. Like going on to play basketball for an NBA team, competitive gaming has developed pathways to the professional level with tournaments, teams, sponsors, contracts, and uniforms. Any video game featuring multiplayer could become an esport, whether you play in teams or solo.
Popular esport competitions feature games like Call of Duty, League of Legends, andironically quite a few real-world sport games such as Madden and FIFA. But this just scratches the surface of the iceberg. The Esports industry has already become massive in such a short time. And it’s still growing.
How it all began…
To understand the current state of Esports, let’s start at the beginning. The growth of Esports is incredible given its relative infancy to other competitions. Unlike chess (standard rules began in the 16th century) or track & field (first Olympic games held in 776 B.C.), the digital frontier of gaming could not exist until we invented the computer.
The first video game OXO was a form of tic-tac-toe created by A.S. Douglas in 1952 (War Games, anyone?). Then famously William Higinbotham’s Tennis for Two followed in 1958. That means in about 70 years we have come a significantly long way. Once games entered the market in arcades and on original consoles, it was only a matter of time before we made a competition out of it.
It all began in an unlikely place. In 1971, the University of Stanford held a competition amongst students playing Spacewar! and the winner received a one-year subscription to Rolling Stone Magazine. Then followed the Space Invaders Championship in 1980, considered the first real gaming competition. The ball was rolling by that point. As more consoles became popular, companies like Nintendo were ready to capitalize on the interest, launching world championships for their own games in the 90s.
Though relatively new, gaming saw the emergence of competitions almost immediately. Yet its popularity then does not compare to the scale of esports now.
Where it’s going…
What began as a small university competition for a magazine subscription turned into a whole industry with a current total prize payout of 1.6 billion dollars. In fact, The International 2021, a Dota 2 world championship held in Bucharest, Romania holds the record for the highest prize pool at a whopping $40 million. So, kids really can earn money playing video games. In 2001, South Korea even hosted the first annual version of esports Olympics called The World Cyber Games. Players from around the world compete in various games for medals with the most recent competition occurring in July of this year.
Audience size for video games has also recently grown thanks in no small part to Twitch and similar platforms out of Asia. The global livestreaming audience in 2021 reached almost 810 million according to Newzoo’s report. They predict an additional increase to 1.41 billion by 2025. Esports alone reached 532 million spectators, and as more people enter the video game watching world through streaming, esports will capture more viewership in the future.
Esports is an industry to watch not only because of its growing revenue but also because it’s full of passionate people having fun. With esports teams cropping up all over the United States in high schools and colleges, kids are discovering a career within the gaming industry may no longer be as far-fetched as it seemed a decade ago. It will be exciting to see where competitive gaming goes from here and the new heights it will inevitably reach as video gaming continues to advance technologically and become a more integral part of mainstream culture.
Sources:
The Incredible Growth of eSports [+ eSports Statistics] (influencermarketinghub.com)
Video Game History – Timeline & Facts
Esports Evolution: A Brief History of eSports and Competitive Gaming — The Sporting Blog
What is esports? A beginner’s guide to competitive gaming | GamesRadar+
The Brief History of the World Cyber Games – Dot Esports
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