An Overview of How eSports Has Become Mainstream Over the Years

In the past decade, eSports has been growing significantly and now it is considered a specific division of sports and entertainment. Unlike traditional sports, eSports players do not have to spend hours in the gym or train in the field. However, they do play for hundreds to thousands of hours to master their craft. The growth of eSports is finally acknowledging their grind.

The prospect of starting into competitive gaming attracts a lot of people. But it requires a good gaming setup, fast internet connections like those offered with Spectrum WiFi plans, and a whole lot of commitment. But the results are worth the effort for many people. Dig into this blog to have an overview of how competitive gaming went mainstream

The Beginning of Competitive Gamin

Competitive gaming is not a new phenomenon, it has been around for a long time. However, it was limited to people facing off in arcades on early Sega and Capcom titles until not too long ago. One of the first recorded instances of competitive gaming took place in 1972. Five players participated in the tournament and the winner received a prize.

In the late 70s and 80s, Atari laid the foundations of mainstream competitive gaming with Space Invaders. Later in 1980, over 10,000 players competed in the Space Invaders Championship making it the first major gaming tournament of its scale.

Intermediate Era of 2010s

Competitive gaming wasn’t very big, at least not big enough for the masses to consider it as a career choice. But major gaming events that took place in 2010’s changed a lot. The first Dota 2 International tournament took place in 2011 with joint efforts by Valve and Nvidia. 16 teams faced off for the prize of a million dollars. Three years later, the prize money was more than $10 million. It went on to increase every year until 2021 with the prize pool getting over $40 million. This meant that any player who went on to win The International will instantly become a millionaire.

The prize money of League of Legends is not as massive as Dota 2’s, but the tournament boasts bigger viewership than Super Bowl. Apart from 5vs5 strategy games, battleground games like PUBG and Fortnite have had gigantic prize pools too. Individual players made names for themselves from a game’s fanbase. For instance, people know Faker for LoL , Ninja and Bugha for Fortnite, Knee for Tekken, Shroud for PUBG and Valorant, and Sumail for Dota.

Lucrative prize money, sponsorships from the likes of Redbull, and high salaries for eSports players have played a significant role in the growth of competitive gaming and eSports. Many teams like Sentinels, OG, Nigma Galaxy, and Cloud 9 have proven that eSports can be a very rewarding career for one to choose.

Role of Twitch and YouTube Gaming

Tournaments happen once or a couple of times a year. Despite so many teams participating, the number of players participating is quite limited. Instead of competing, many gamers focus more on platforms like Twitch and YouTube. Dr. Disrespect, Ninja, and Shroud are some of the most popular eSports streamers out there. Streaming is a more casual way of competing. Fans join the stream to watch and interact with their favorite eSports celebrities.

Streamers earn revenues through fan donations and subscriptions. Estimates say that Ninja has made over $25 million just by streaming. The income is good enough for committed gamers to adopt it as a career path. For many gamers who do not have the sponsorships or resources to compete in tournaments, streaming on Twitch or YouTube can be the first step to making it big.

Future of eSports

With the growing audience, bigger prize pools, and more game developers hosting tournaments, the future of eSports seems promising. Video games now give players a competitive feel by showing their local and global ranks on their profiles. This gives them quite a push to keep on competing.

Also, there are a ton of virtual events and tournaments that happen within online servers. The prizes are usually exclusive in-game skins or outfits. However, many games have also started giving players cash prizes or trophies for winning in such events.

More genres of games are introducing their own takes to enter the competitive scene. So, being adept at Tekken and Street Fighter, or mainstream titles is no longer required for gamers to make gaming their profession. All this is opening new opportunities for gamers.