Despite millionaire championships, with players and teams consolidated around the world, the eSports market still needs to row to gain space beyond the fan base itself and pierce the bubble.
There are already initiatives to give more visibility to electronic sports, such as creation, by the International Olympic Olympic Committee, Olympics for the sport. They will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2027.
On the other hand, it is still difficult to compare with large traditional sporting events, such as the World Cup or SuperBowl, both in sponsorship – which have been losing strength in electronic sports – and in the audience, forcing the restructuring of some tournaments.
The complexity and range of available games has grown, warming and amplifying a previously local market. Well -produced and expensive eSports championships are now broadcast on range sites across the planet, with millionaire awards.
For Rainbow player Six Siege Eduardo “Kds” Chiste Fontes, from Faz Clan, the eSports scenario in Brazil comes on the rise. For him, the growth of modalities is natural, while teams and tournaments are improving.
In the player’s view, the market has grown to the point of creating a number of other indirect opportunities involving electronic sports. “Even if you are not a professional player you have to be a journalist, team coach, analyst and various other roles here,” he reiterated.
Although consolidated among gamers, fans and enthusiasts themselves, the eSports market is still struggling to reach those who do not know the modalities or are not familiar with the rules and teams.
It is difficult to modulate the growth of tournaments in terms of audience. An example is that in 2019, the American broadcaster CNBC said the League of Legends championship would have had more views than that year’s Superbowl.
The data has been widely criticized, after all, the way you measure the traditional football final is different from eSports. While, for example, the amount of live viewers per minute on Superbowl is checked, in the LOL Championship are simply checked as many times as viewers watched the video.
Another factor that makes it difficult to compare is the one who is auditing the numbers, as the criteria to define what is a view and what counts or not at the audience are not uniform, and may even depend on the data provided by the organizers of the Games, without independent audit.
The retraction in this market reinforces the fact that electronic sports have not been able to pierce the bubble around larger spectators and greater revenue. Last year, Activision Blizzard, gaming gaming gaming, announced restructuring in the overwatch championship and decreased the sector dedicated to modalities due to the difficulties of making sustainable profit.
Twitch, famous in eSports championship broadcasts and even game influencers, also promoted layoffs on the reduction of sponsorship, which migrated to the safest option of traditional football, basketball and other traditional modalities.
The drop in revenues and the flow of money points out that the sector will probably undergo a rebalancing between viewers, players, teams and tournament developers.
Last July, the IOC approved the creation of eSports Olympics, which should be performed every two years with three categories: virtually virtually sports sports, sports simulators and eSports aligned with Olympic values - for example, shooting or violent games.
François Xavier, Global Esports Vice President and Ubisoft Competitive Games Market, told Sheet That the professional competitiveness industry in the games is very young and that, after the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a shock in the market in terms of partnerships and revenues.
“Certainly, sponsorship is no longer the main one with many initiatives possibilities. On the other hand, as you mentioned, we have the IOC, we have the eSports World Cup, we have, a lot of positive development. Each aspect of this shows that it is not just a bubble, it is really an entertainment and, I would say, one of the new entertainments of the future,” he said.
Nelson Garcia, associated director of eSports broadcast and live events from Ubisoft, argued that the retraction movement in electronic sports is similar to what happens in a series of other sectors around the world.
However, he says he is optimistic about the future of the modalities, and says that the will and passion of enthusiastic eSports will not retreat, which should contribute to the maintenance of tournaments in a global and broader model for the coming years.
“[Processos de retração] They are part of the learning of new industries. It is as if eSports were newborns in the entertainment industry. So obviously there will be errors. There will be people who do bad planning and things like that. But it’s part of the game, I would say. But I am very optimistic, “he concluded.
The journalist traveled at the invitation of Ubisoft.
