Esports.

What are they and why are they so popular?

Esports has been around a lot longer than one may think dating back to 1972 when personal gaming consoles became readily available. One of the earliest large-scale tournaments was held back in 1980 featuring the game Space Invaders; that tournament hosted roughly 10,000 people across multiple regions, with the top four traveling to New York for the finals. As games became more competitive, the audiences grew.

Things really gained momentum in the early 2000s when the Esports World Cup made its debut, hosting 358 players from 37 different countries with a prize pool of 150,000 euros. Fast forward to now the tournament has grown massively since its inception in 2003. Now in 2024 it featured 23 events across 22 games and a combined total prize purse of 62.5 million dollars.

These tournaments are hosted much like your average events, with teams competing against one another or one-on-one events, it depends on which game you play. There are rules and regulations and officials that oversee each event.

The legitimacy of these types of competitions as “sports” is often called into question because they are, after all, video games. I would consider them sports. The fact they are digital does not change the amount of concentration or skill it takes, it just changes the skill set.

That being said, I am not saying that it’s on the same level of physical requirements that we see across major sports like the NHL, NFL, NBA, etc… but your average player is not going to be able to compete at the level to win at these level events.

Just like other sports it is true that not everyone is going to make it to the professional level, but there is a chance and it’s going to require thousands of hours of practice to have a shot at making it to some of the larger events.

The pay range can vary from 25,000 to a million dollars a year if they’re lucky. These are low-end numbers that don’t account for all factors like sponsors, tournament wins and other external sources from streaming, but there is money to be made if you are able to make it to the pros and compete.

That being said, just like other sports, age is a factor, with a majority of these gamers peaking in their mid-20s and from there falling back on streaming revenue as their personality, streaming views and subscriptions make up the majority of their revenue.

Much like other sports age is a factor with a majority of these gamers peaking in their mid twenties and from there falling back on streaming revenue as their personality and streaming views and subscriptions make up the majority of their revenue.

When considering all factors from coaching to level of competition, I think there is an aspect of gaming that is correctly classed as a sport, but the majority of the money made is from outside revenue.