Millions of sports fans have turned to the burgeoning competitive gaming scene in a bid to stay entertained during the coronavirus lockdown. The esports sector has been on a remarkable upward trajectory over the past decade, and global viewership shot up to 450 million people in 2019. That trend has accelerated this year after the Covid-19 crisis laid waste to the traditional sporting calendar.
People are stuck at home, bored out of their minds and searching for competitive action to offer some respite from the tedium. Competitive gaming events have filled that void with aplomb. Viewers can head over to Twitch, YouTube or Mixer at any time of the day or night and watch elite gamers producing dazzling feats of virtuosity while battling for victory.
The 24/7 nature of esports action is just one of many factors behind its astonishing rise to prominence over the past few years. Its accessibility is even more pronounced right now, as the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the cancellation of traditional sporting events in almost every country.
Esports has not been totally immune to the crisis, as plenty of sold-out, live events had to be shelved. However, the action has generally moved online, allowing viewers to enjoy a number of exciting competitive gaming tournaments on a daily basis.
A Record Year for Esports
Twitch is by far and away the most popular streaming platform for esports events. In the first quarter of 2020, it reached all-time highs for hours watched, hours streamed and concurrent viewership. Those figures are likely to climb even higher when figures are released for the second quarter, ending on June 30.
YouTube is the second biggest esports streaming platform, and it reported a 13% increase in gaming hours watched during the first quarter of 2020, compared to the final quarter of 2019. YouTube Gaming also enjoyed its highest ever concurrent viewer figures, while Facebook Gaming reported a strong quarter too.
Elsewhere, Twitter announced a 71% increase in esports and gaming conversation during the second half of March after the lockdown began in the US and Europe. Every available metric points to the esports industry flourishing during this time of crisis, thanks largely to its flexibility and versatility.
Riding the Technological Wave
Esports has only grown popular thanks to the huge technological advances seen in recent years. The first competitive gaming tournament took place all the way back in 1972, when Bruce Baumgart won the inaugural Spacewar Intergalactic Olympics at Stanford University’s AI Lab. However, esports remained a niche pursuit for decades, as there was no convenient way to bring gamers around the world together.
That all changed with the advent of high-speed broadband. Suddenly gamers on opposite sides of the world could meet online, play against one another and stream the action live on Twitch.
It quickly transformed competitive gaming from an underground movement to a multibillion-dollar industry, replete with famous superstars, professional teams, agents, sponsorship deals and primetime TV slots.
Pro gaming is now skyrocketing in popularity with each passing year, and some industry insiders are convinced it will eventually overtake traditional sports to become the dominant entertainment sector in the world. It has a long way to go, but the current crisis has allowed it to pick up millions of new fans and display its versatility agility and innovation at a time when competitive action is thin on the ground.
Appealing to New Demographics
Some traditional sports fans may have previously been reluctant to experiment with esports, fearing that it is the preserve of “fat nerds sitting in front of a computer”. That could not be further from the truth.
Competitive gaming requires phenomenal endurance, concentration, dexterity, strategic prowess, communication and teamwork – traits shared with traditional athletes – and the action is thrilling.
It is an extremely exciting scene, encapsulating a diverse range of games, from MOBAs such as League of Legends and Dota 2 to first-person shooters like CS:GO and outlandish titles like Rocket League, plus all manner of sports and fighting games. Competitive simply needed an opportunity to prove how exciting it is to new traditional sports fans, and Covid-19 has provided it with that opening.
Sports betting sites have responded by significantly ramping up their focus on the esports scene. The esports betting industry has largely been the preserve of specialist sites like Unikrn in the past, but it has rapidly gone mainstream throughout this crisis.
Suddenly people that would normally spend hours talking about accumulators, spreads and totals on football, basketball, tennis and cricket are becoming experts on the shooting mechanics of CS:GO and the Talent changes brought about by Dota 2’s Patch 7.26c.
Leading sportsbook operators are now convinced that esports will remain popular among traditional sports fans even when the coronavirus lockdown eases off.
A Golden Future
Competitive gaming now has a great opportunity to capitalize on its current popularity and bolster its chances of overhauling traditional sports. The industry is run by young, agile, tech-savvy companies, and they were able to quickly pivot towards remote gaming when the coronavirus outbreak gripped the world.
The action takes place in virtual worlds, which makes esports ideal during an era of social distancing, but it also shows that pro gaming is well placed to adapt to all manner of future societal changes. The sector has remained is at the vanguard of technological developments, and the gaming scene is extremely dynamic and innovative, which should help it roll with the punches in future.
This crisis has highlighted the vulnerability of industries that depend on live events. The exhibitions industry has plummeted, while tourism, transport, traditional retail, professional sports, concert organisers and cinema owners have suffered terribly. The world is increasingly moving online, as tech companies, ecommerce retailers, video conference providers and streaming services like Netflix are all flourishing.
It is exhilarating to visit a dedicated esports arena and watch a big CS:GO or LoL tournament unfold, but tournament organisers will be reluctant to plan such events in future. Developments within VR will soon allow viewers to enter a virtual stadium to watch the action take place, and the current crisis should speed up the development of these services.
Traditional sports will remain staid and static, whereas esports will remain at the forefront of technological developments, allowing it to eventually fulfil its potential and become the world’s dominant entertainment sector, regardless of whether there is a global pandemic.
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