Gaming has always been frowned upon and, since the internet became mainstream, many things have changed. In the beginning, eSports events were very small and they were organized and followed by a small number of people which were all part of the same community.
They financed and organized events where participants would play Counter-Strike online, Dota 1, Call of Duty, etc. However, these kinds of events have a totally different magnitude today and there are more of them each day as well as big games that create large competitions.
Today, even some of the largest media channels such as ESPN report eSports events. Especially with Twitch being so mainstream and all the Twitch overlays offered to streamers!
The general public has less prejudice towards games
Just a couple of decades ago, people didn’t like gamers and the fact that they spend a lot of time at home. Gaming was considered a bad thing. However, today, this has changed. First of all, people have started to understand just how much money gamers earn and that it can be a lucrative career choice.
At the same time, major companies have recognized the potential of eSports and they decided to invest and sponsor events. This helped them make money, while at the same time showing the world that eSports are a real thing.
There are more and more people playing games
At the moment, more than 300 million people around the world are, in some way, part of the whole eSports community. This number includes people who are following tournaments via streams, going to them in person, are involved in the promotion, players, casters, betters, and so on.
As time goes by, the number of people involved in eSports keeps growing and, as the promotion keeps getting better and better, there are more people learning about games, tournaments, and prizes each year. At this rate, the number of people around eSports will exceed half a billion by 2020.
The eSports market keeps growing
Some of the most popular online games that have big events continue to grab new players each year and make even larger events than the year before. For example, League of Legends has over 27 million unique players every day, while over 80 million people play the game each month.
Furthermore, official tournaments are happening everywhere around the world and the ratings, as well as attendance, break the record each year. At the same time, the prizes are also constantly growing. For example, the prize pool for the latest Dota 2 International tournament was $24 million.
eSports have gone mainstream and they are here to stay. We can only expect them to be even more accepted and bigger in the future.
