Over the last five years, the global popularity of eSports has been on the rise. What was once considered a small enterprise, now fills arenas and pays millions of dollars in prize money. As we can clearly see in the infographic below composed by Darko, editor of NJGames, eSports has become one of the fastest growing industries in the world.
The first eSports competition, The Space Invaders tournament, was held back in 1980, and it had an attendance of 10,000 participants. The next significant eSports event happened in 1997 when the Quake game took place with 2,000 participants flying in from around the country. Rumor has it that the winner of the tournament got to drive off in the leading developer of Quake’s 1987 Ferrari 328 GTS.
In 2005, the Cyberathlete Professional League organized a competition called the CPL World Tour. The tour was played throughout the whole year in nine different countries and the Grand Finals event was held in New York and broadcast by MTV. Furthermore, the total prize purse of the tournament was $1,000,000 and the winner went home with the grand prize of $150,000.
The International 2018: Dota 2 Championship’ prize purse landed a total of $25,532,177.
Since 2012, the global eSports audience has grown exponentially. It’s projected that the worldwide audience for eSports will reach 557 million in 2021. However, around 40% of the viewers don’t play the games themselves, which means that eSports gaming will become much more of a spectator sport in the future.
According to the source’s estimates, the eSports market revenue is projected to proliferate in the following years, and by 2021, the Esports revenues will generate a staggering 1,385 billion. By 2028, the eSports industry will most likely surpass $7 billion, mostly due to the sizeable sponsorships and technological advancements.
As it appears, the eSports industry has really take it up a notch in the last couple of years. If you wish to find out more interesting stuff about this booming industry, read the rest of the infographic.
