Competitive video gaming will be a $1.5 billion industry by 2020, researchers say
You can say "it's not a sport" all you want, but competitive video gaming - also known as eSports - is a thing, and, as this chart from Statista shows, it's only expected to get bigger.
In its latest eSports market report, market researcher Newzoo thinks eSports at large will make $696 million in revenue in 2017, with its total audience - be it hardcore fans or those who just watch the bigger game championships - reaching 385 million. By 2020, Newzoo projects, those will reach $1.48 billion and 589 million, respectively. (That revenue figure doesn't include money made from eSports-related gambling, either.)
That'd still fall well behind major sports leagues like the NFL and NBA, and the relative inscrutability of, say, "League of Legends" - the most popular competitive video game in the world - still makes it harder for newcomers to get into. Plus, while sports media titans like ESPN has stopped ignoring the trend, some of their forays into gaming haven't been popular.
But eSports' fans are overwhelmingly young and online, media and tech giants are increasingly dipping their toes in the sport, and more and more game developers are building their titles to have eSports-friendly features. Put it all together, and these sort of expectations may not be unreasonable.
Business Insider/Mike Nudelman/Statista
- Tata Motors Q4 consolidated net profit jumps over 3-fold at ₹17,528.59 crore
- Gold, silver prices rebound on bullish global trend, strong domestic demand
- 27 emails, 10 banks accounts: Mystery of missing Taarak Mehta actor Sodhi deepens
- Sensex, Nifty rebound as Reliance, ITC gain
- IPL Decoded: Highest individual scores in IPL 2024 so far, from Stoinis to Kohli
- Nothing Phone (2a) blue edition launched
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market