The earliest known video game competition took place on October 19, 1972, The Space Invaders Championship held by Atari in 1980 was the earliest large scale video game competition, attracting more than 10,000 participants across the United States, establishing competitive gaming as a mainstream hobby. The first ever recorded esports event was at Stanford University for the game Space war where students were invited to an Intergalactic space war Olympics whose grand prize was a year’s subscription for Rolling Stone magazine.
By 2017, eSports awareness had risen to 1.28 billion, and it reached 1.43 billion by 2018. In 2019, an estimated 1.57 billion people are likely to learn about it. This means that viewership will likely increase as well and with that, the industry will further see revenue growth. People are interested in esports because it caters to all age groups giving them a sense of fulfilment and achievement. It is also a way to relax and unwind from a long day of work.
There are a lot of celebrities, influencers and companies that support this industry to help it grow from musicians like Drake, marshmallow and Michel Jordan to influencers like pewdiepie, Ninja and pokemane. There are lots of events carried out by esports like conventions, charity events and to raise awareness of certain topics.
Global esports revenues will grow to $1.1 billion in 2020, a year-on-year growth of +15.7%, up from $950.6 million in 2019. In 2020, $822.4 million in revenues—or three-quarters of the total market—will come from media rights and sponsorship.The current esports scene has grown more than what people would have thought it would when it first started. With the current pandemic the esports industry has seen more viewers because more people are home and need something to relieve there boredom.
Comments are closed.