Over the past several years, gaming is becoming less recreational and veering towards being a competitive activity like football matches seen on types of sports apps. When gaming first gained popularity, it was associated with those on the peripheries of society who indulged in video games as a hobby. However, in today’s society the gaming industry has morphed into a multi-billion dollar global enterprise. Moreover, the demographic of those who are gamers has broken free from being limited to just men as more women than ever are choosing to play. The industry has also witnessed a surge in its representations of those from varying ethnic and racial backgrounds which has brought a lot of diversity to the sector.
In this light, there has been a tendency for games like poker to become more mainstream as the number of people who are interested in it steadily increases. In fact, there are now televised competitive events like poker which have grown in prize money and recognition which has influenced other industries to host events themselves as a result. These types of events are enticing for those who are just beginning to learn about poker or for those who know the intricacies of the game including the types of poker chips. As poker has become one of the most popular watched events, other eSports sectors are being encouraged to expand their horizons.
Before becoming involved with the eSports industry and maybe even taking part yourself it is important to gain a better knowledge of its origins. ESports is the name allocated to electronic sports. It is a form of competition where professional gamers square off either in teams or individually. Competitions take place in a multiplayer setting, and there are usually cash prizes rewarded to players at the end of tournaments.
In fact, the birth of eSports can be tracked back several years to around 1972, when a Space Invaders Championship attracted 10,000 participants. This figure skyrocketed in 1998 with the Starcraft 2 tournament on PC gaining the viewership of more than 50 million online viewers and 17 million of these originating from Twitch.
The history of eSports expanded even further in the 1990s. One notable moment was the first edition of the Nintendo World Championships held in 1990, which spanned 29 cities across the United States. This was a fundamental moment in eSports history as one of the original NES cartridges used in the tournament’s world championship sold on eBay in 2014 for more than $100,000. In fact, in the 2000s, televised eSports took off due to the popularity of those televised events in South Korea. Soon, other countries began to mimic these types of events by hosting their own eSports programmes.
Another pinnacle moment for the growth of eSports was the birth of the online streaming service Twitch in 2011. This platform was immediately successful as it gained the attention of 3.2 million unique visitors per month and within a years this figure rose to 20 million. Initially Twitch was primarily focused on eSports and gaming with such games a League of Legends being the main reason for many people using the platform. Twitch was assumed by Amazon in 2014 and it continued to lure in the same amount of an audience as it had previously if not more.
Some of the biggest types of eSports games that are played every year are first-person shooter (FPS) events like Call of Duty, Apex Legends, and Halo. There is also significant interest in multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) events like League of Legends and Dota 2. As always, many individuals still opt to tune in to fighter game events like Mortal Kombat and Super Smash Bros. Lastly, there are a whole host of sport game events like Madden and NBA2K and other events like card games and real-time strategies which still lure in a respectably large audience.
The popularity of eSports continued to grow throughout the 2000s as tournament hosts including the World Cyber Games and the Electronic Sports World Cup debuted, and paved the way for by the birth of Major League Gaming (MLG) in 2002. MLG is regarded as one of the most well-known and reputable hosts in Esports on a global scale. Indeed, professional eSports leagues are now more popular than ever with the possibility of those interested in specific games becoming a professional player themselves. This is because earning money by gaming becomes more and more attainable as esports tournaments fill whole arenas. Prizes for both the 2019 Dota 2 International and the 2019 Fornite World Cup was estimated to be over $30 million and Epic Games who is the creator of such games as Gears of War and Infinity Blade earned around $100 million for the 2019 Fortnite World Cup. This would only encourage more types of gaming developers to try their luck in creating their own competitive events in the years to come.
In conclusion, eSports growth has been dramatic and can be traced over a period of many years. If we put it into perspective, the major growth of this sector has taken place over a relatively short amount of time. During this period, competitive gaming has transformed from small and lesser known events to worldwide tournaments with professional players, organisations, prizes, viewers, and structures that rival more than other types of traditional sports. With eSports being successful from the moment of its birth, the popularity and growth of this industry is not set to stagnate any time soon.
Josh Yang is a Tech Writer who loves helping people understand what’s going on in the tech industry. He writes about all things tech, from the newest gadgets to how to get your cat off your keyboard. Josh has been writing since 2013 and enjoys discovering new topics and sharing them with his audience.
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© TechPresident – All rights reserved 2021.
