The past few years have seen the rapid growth of esports across many different sectors as newer games have emerged and captured the growing audiences – this has been true in particular throughout this past year as a growing audience has been able to make the transition from traditional sporting options whilst cancellations and postponements were common, to the world of esports which had largely remained undisrupted. But as the numbers of those willing to move across and explore esports continues to grow, it starts to become clear that esports may beginning to outpace the numbers offered by the latter.
Perhaps the biggest blessing that has helped esports grow much in the way it has is from the growing international scene that makes up a large portion of the viewership – games such as League of Legends have become some big particularly in the Asian regions of China and Korea that a huge portion of the viewership is made up of, the 2019 finals for the World Championship event that takes place each year was able to boast over one hundred million viewers throughout the tournament, peaking at over forty-four million consecutive viewers for the final day, bigger than even some of the biggest sporting events such as the Superbowl. Many of these numbers are conservative based on data collected too, as there are many streaming platforms particularly in China that don’t expressly share the information, and so realistic numbers could be much higher.
(Image from businessinsider.com)
This past year has only increased numbers too – titles with more familiarity such as FIFA and the NBA have allowed fans who may have been otherwise unwilling to make the change through unfamiliarity or lack of understand for these games have become more open to the idea of change, as newer services become available to allow these players to bet on esports too it offers a platform that is recognizable and easy to understand, and the accessibility granted through free livestreaming that has allowed new viewers to tune in without restriction and explore the excitement that has come with esports.
Whilst there is still a long way to go and efforts to bridge the existing gap much more, the gap is certainly closing and by all estimates the growth of esports is starting to outpace that of traditional sporting events, and as the library of games becomes more widely available and the interest in the bigger titles that make up most of the viewership continue to grow too, it seems that there will be no denying that esports could potentially be the future of sporting, as gaming looks to take hold.
