Over the last decade, eSports has become one of the fastest growing industries in the world.
With titles ranging from first-person shooters to real-time strategy, and now encompassing athletic sports games (NBA, FIFA, NFL), the category has exploded in popularity.
So let’s get down to it, here’s ironSource’s complete guide to eSports- learn about the history of eSports, how it became so big, top teams, competitors and more!
The history of eSports: how did eSports get so popular?
In 1980, Atari solidified competitive gaming as a popular option when it held the Space Invaders Championship, the first large-scale video game competition, which attracted over 10,000 participants across the US.
Sponsors also made competitive gaming a lucrative career choice. Developers realized the potential of eSports and started getting more involved, which has led to more money, better broadcasts, and higher production values. In turn, live streaming started to become increasingly more popular through platforms like Twitch, allowing gamers across the world to bring in steady incomes.
Top eSports games
While any game that has a clear winner or loser can be dubbed an eSport, several titles dominate the market:
League of Legends
League of Legends is notably the most popular eSports game today in which teams battle to destroy the enemy’s nexus. At the 2017 Season World Championship, the final competition of the 2017 League of Legends competitive season, 24 teams were invited to play for a prize pool of $4,596,591.
Call of Duty
The Call of Duty World League hosts monthly events, which culminate in the Call of Duty World League Championships in which 32 teams play the latest entry in the franchise, Call of Duty: WWII, and compete for a prize pool of $1.5 million dollars.
Defense of the Ancients 2 (DOTA 2)
Valve’s DOTA 2 is a MOBA in which two teams of five unique hero characters try to destroy the enemy’s ancient structure inside the enemy base.
Valve hosts an annual tournament called The International where the world's best DOTA players compete for prizes. The International 2017 broke the record for the largest prize pool in eSports history at $24,787,916.
Other top eSports games include Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, OverWatch, Heroes Of The Storm, and Starcraft.
eSports earnings
As players and teams produce a lot of content which can be distributed through streaming communities (like Twitch), eSports also provide an ideal real estate for advertisers and brands. Additionally, just like athletic sports - sponsors will advertise their brands on players’ jerseys, contributing a substantial portion of the overall profit.
eSports is also proving to be very lucrative for the players themselves, who receive a salary in addition to competing for prize pools of up to $24 million.
Here’s a list of some of the top player’s earnings:
- Player Chen Wei Lin - $250,000 a year
- Frank Zhang - $151,500 a year
- Lee Byung Ryul - $150,825 a year
Just like athletic sports, eSports organizations have team owners, contracts, and partnerships that fund multiple teams for a variety of games. Here’s a look at some of the top teams in conjunction with their earnings.
- Team Liquid - $18,915,677.56 - 1155 tournaments
- Evil Geniuses - $17,074,932.79 - 692 tournaments
- Newbee - $12,439,368.12 - 117 tournaments
- LGD Gaming - $10,317,457.31 - 120 tournaments
- Fnatic- $10,248,170.27 - 714 tournaments
eSports vs real sports
So are eSports real sports? That’s been the ongoing debate for years.
The future of esports
eSports fans have a lot to look forward to in the next few years. According to Superdata’s report, the global eSports economy will grow to $2.3 billion by 2022. Traditional sports organizations and media outlets are also increasingly turning to eSports and taking the category seriously.
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