It has been a tough year for major sporting events as then ongoing pandemic has caused delays and cancellations, as well as the hope for many viewers to find an alternative. But it hasn’t only been this year that has signalled change, as esports has been seeing a significant rise in popularity for the past decade, and there are a number of different reasons that have been attributed to the huge successes.
Changing attitudes toward gaming – The biggest shift has been within changing attitudes toward gaming as a whole – when esports first started to emerge in the early 2000’s, it had largely only been aimed at enthusiast gamers and that had been a trend to stick around for the longer term. The big shift recently for mobile gaming however has caused a change in how many outside of the gaming community as a whole view it, and it has become a much more accessible form of entertainment. This coupled with the original audience being much older, and the younger audience being much more interested in esports, and the scene has been able to grow dramatically in popularity over the past decade.
Familiarity – Another important factor has been within the introducing of familiarity for a number of different factors – games being one of the primary changes here as titles such as FIFA and NBA have developed their own esports scene, bringing fans who may have only been interested in more traditional sporting events into esports. Another had been the widespread adoption of supporting sectors such as betting as the growth of esports betting here for example has allowed an older audience to make the adjustment too, whilst also giving those who may not have found much interest in the games and genres something a little more familiar to take part in.
Franchising and infrastructure – We’ve also seen bigger organisations and franchises start to move into the esports scene too, familiar names in basketball and football now own their own esports teams and big celebrities are starting to invest in teams too with names like Drake being an investor in to one of the biggest orgs in 100 Thieves – these big names getting involved with esports brings more eyes and more acceptance too, whilst also being responsible for the investment and money that have been used to bring individual games away from small niches and in to the huge communities they are now.
There are certainly more steps to be taken, and some that may not need to change at all – the success of streaming platforms have meant that esports has no reliance on big broadcasting deals for TV for example as the world becomes more digital with a bigger focus on streaming, and the wider accessibility through many games becoming free have meant viewers can more easily participate and learn, and the growing number of players within these titles means the growing number of fans alongside it – esports is certainly looking to be the future, but just how long until it becomes the primary form of sporting entertainment is yet to be seen.