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Romeo Misao, Head of Marketing – India and South Asia, Galaxy Racer.
At 58, most people start gearing up to lead a much-deserved sedentary lifestyle of little activity and much relaxation. Not Anne Fish though. It was in February 2021 that the UK mum took to gaming, at 58, when she joined her son Benjy in playing Fortnite. Since then, Anne has become the talk of the gaming community and her little town of Surrey, even more so since September 2021 when she was signed on by esports, gaming, and lifestyle company Galaxy Racer to livestream herself playing Fortnite. At the time of writing this, Anne a.k.a. ‘MamaBenjyFishy’ has 174,000 subscribers on YouTube and 492,000 followers on Twitch and the former bookkeeper is well on her way to becoming a pro-gamer herself.
The rise of gaming and esports
The status of gaming and esports globally has transformed over the last decade. It has shown a staggering CAGR of 38% and has become a $1.8 billion sunrise sector in India as per BCG-Sequoia’s 2021 report, where esports in particular is a nascent but fast growing ~$100 million market currently. According to EY’s Dawn of Esports 2021 report, the Indian esports ecosystem is expected to grow to 1.5 Mn players by 2025 with 85 million unique viewers, a 5X jump from the current 17 million Esports will generate an economic value of around USD 13 Bn between 2021 and 2025, comprising investments, in-app purchases, winnings, taxes, and related consumption.
This growth can be attributed to a growing younger population, high disposable incomes, a variety of new gaming genres, and the ease of access to the internet through the almost universal use of smartphones. The amount of time spent online has also increased considerably since the onset of the pandemic, leading to more people turning towards gaming as the preferred form of entertainment. As this sector continues to grow, it has opened doors to many opportunities and possibilities.
Esports – An enabler of many positives
From a game developer standpoint, the category has led to an increase in the life span of several titles since competitive tournaments often run for 5-10 years. Many new Indian game studios have emerged in the last few years, specializing in games across a variety of genres to suit the Indian market. From an organizer’s point of view, esports IPs and tournaments are now amongst the most watched events globally, with viewership numbers transcending those of major sports leagues. These tournaments are setting a new bar for excellence and popularity – the 2021 League of Legends Worlds peaked at over 4 million viewers (excluding Chinese audiences), while Galaxy Racer’s Gamers Galaxy: Invitational series Dubai 2022 generated 5.24M hours of watch-time in just 48 hours of air-time.
From a creator perspective, esports has made stars out of gamers, offering them a platform to share their passion for gaming with a live audience. Streamers today are the superstars of the gaming space, with massive audiences and followings that rival those of mainstream celebrities. This popularity allows them to command top-tier paychecks from sponsors and advertisers. Some of the most successful professionals in the gaming industry gained popularity as independent streamers, going on to sign streaming contracts worth millions of dollars. The substantial prize money offered by several big-league tournaments is also a huge draw for many – last year, Dota 2’s The International 2021 offered a staggering prize pool of $40 million. As a result, business and gaming organizations alike are investing significant resources into recruiting talented gamers and training them to be world class esports athletes.
Also, with huge swathes of India getting digitally connected, the streaming game has moved beyond English and Hindi and now features popular names across languages. This grassroot level proliferation of gaming is a massive opportunity for many eagle-eyed enthusiasts to make it big in the field. From a socio-cultural standpoint, esports has been an enabler in social interactions especially in the absence of in-person meetings during the pandemic. And with the category increasingly becoming a spectator sport, it is also inducting millions into its fold and forging the creation of vibrant communities who are thriving together.
Career opportunities galore
It is no surprise therefore that esports today offers a wide range of career opportunities to individuals who are passionate about the space but might want to look beyond the obvious choice of live streaming their game play. Home to some of the most lucrative and fulfilling full-time jobs, especially for young adults, esports has given birth to an entire ecosystem of roles and responsibilities. Career choices today span far beyond what is seen at the surface level. Much like the film industry, there is a complex support infrastructure behind each platform, creator, player, and event. An esports tournament today is driven by a team that understands.
It includes a specialized production team that coordinates and executes the entire event, video broadcast teams to produce and livestream each event, professional hosts and commentators, technical experts for electronic and equipment management, virtual and on-ground security teams, IT and cybersecurity experts, social media teams to promote the event, set design experts to create the set-up, and operations and logistics teams to manage the smooth execution of the property. The professional esports teams and players themselves are constantly supported by an experienced team behind the scenes. This includes coaches and analysts for game training and practice, fitness trainers and mental health experts for personal wellbeing, business advisors to secure partnerships, and managers to handle the day to day functioning of the team. The adoption of esports has been so rapid and overwhelming, IPs like Overwatch and League of Legends have partnered with colleges to offer collegiate athletic scholarships for players.
The extent of opportunities esports provides will hopefully become even more evident to many this year as esports becomes an official medal event at the upcoming Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games for the first time in the history of such global tournaments. For ecosystem players like us, the hope for the next decade is to see young talents across genres join the burgeoning esports community, to see parents be supportive and encouraging, making esports a mainstream career choice, and lastly, to see bright creative minds take this category to the next level of growth and expansion. And the best part? The fraternity is an encouraging one, which is always a good sign for any sunrise sector. As Anne Fish says,‘They don’t see me as a mum, they see me as a friend, and we have online Monopoly evenings and karaoke nights as well as competing.’
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Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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