E-sport, or competitive video gaming, is a promising market with a growing audience and partnerships. A sign of its legitimacy in both the economic and sporting spheres, the discipline will have its own Olympics in 2025.
Their names are FIFA, Fortnite, Call of Duty, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends.
Dans l’e-sport, soit la confrontation de deux joueurs (et plus) par écrans interposés, le nom des plus grandes franchises des jeux vidéo et la typologie de jeu remplace le nom des disciplines sportives.
While the development of e-sport is inextricably linked to the development of video games in the 1970s, its development intensified in the 1980s with arcade games. Atari was one of the first publishers to organize an e-sports event with its Space Invaders Championship.
Today, this fast-moving market is estimated to be worth $1.5 billion worldwide. A figure to be set against the $159.3 billion international video game market, more than double that generated by the film and music industries combined.With 3 billion players, this industry is the world’s leading entertainment sector.
More than just video games
E-sport, or competitive video gaming, is a sport in which professional and amateur players compete against each other, either alone or in teams, using online or networked video games.
Long gone are the days when the winner of Stanford University’s first video game championship, based on SpaceWar!, won a year’s subscription to Rolling Stones magazine. Indeed, just like ordinary sports competitions, the challenge for gamers is to win titles, cups and other prizes accompanied by financial gains, through sponsorships associated with the player’s individual image or image revenues.
In 2023, 250 million cash prizes were awarded at 47,000 international events.
Players linked to structures can also benefit from financial support, as well as travel and accommodation facilities.
In 1972, the SpaceWar! Originel attracted 10,000 participants, e-sport is now attracting crowds. By 2023, the global e-sport audience is estimated at 500 million people. The latest Major Counter Strike Global Offensive, held in Paris at the Accor Hotel Arena, attracted 50,000 spectators. In France alone, 11.7 million people claim to be e-sport fans.
Halfway between entertainment and a sporting event, e-sport has a strong economic impact at local, national and even international level. Revenues from competitive video games come from brand sponsorship, broadcasting rights and licenses, as well as ticket sales and merchandising.
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