E-SPORTS
E-sports or electronic sports refers to a competitive video gaming industry where players from all around the world participate based on their ranks and reputations as they compete for a cash prize.
Esports have an audience the same as physical sports, however, the audience that watches the tournaments of Esports is estimated to be at 84 million by 2021 just second to 141 million of NFL (football league).
The players who are selected for the tournaments know their respective game inside out. They can play in teams or even one-on-one against one another.
Some of the most popular eSports are League of legends, call of duty, DOTA2, and many more.
The interesting bit is that in other sports we have a men’s team and a women’s team. Whereas in eSports there is no such classification among players, women and men can be a part of the same team.
In fact, it is estimated that 1 in 20 women is involved in eSports and the number is only going higher.
So how do gamers make money apart from tournaments? There are several streaming platforms where gamers live stream their play and earn from it. Twitch, a streaming platform was bought by Amazon for 1 billion US $.
In terms of yearly revenue, eSports is market value is just over 1.08 billion US$ and is only expected to grow more.
The COVID-19 situation has affected many industries negatively but the gaming industry and eSports have only benefitted from it making the gaming industry worth 145 billion US$.
The market for the gaming industry and eSports is only growing. There lies a brighter future for the people involved in this industry if they play their cards right.
I believe it has a massive potential of even becoming a trillion-dollar industry one day.
By: RIDA MASOOD MALIK