After the recent success and reach of the Lol Worlds 2019, many have wondered if there is a possibility that the traditional sports industry will be reached by esports. But have esports grown that much?
The success of the tournaments
One of the reasons why many are asking if the growth of esports could make them compete with similar industries is the massive diffusion and acceptance that main tournament titles are having in the global market.
The first way we see this growth is in the development of the most important tournaments.
In traditional sports, soccer, baseball, football, and tennis, lead the industry with millions of spectators. In the same way, League of Legends, DotA 2, Fortnite and Counter-Strike 2 perceive millions in the audience, prizes, and sponsorships for their major titles.
A clear example is the LoL Worlds 2019 which reached almost 4 million spectators during the final, comparable to the ATP 2018 tennis final which had 4.2 million spectators.
The Open Market
Another important indicator that shows the scope of esports is the growth of adjacent markets.
Local tournaments, or small companies offering sponsorship, merchandise, movies, websites, news, even esports betting sites, are increasingly visible. All this denotes the growing popularity of the games.
Artists involved
Moving forward, something that demonstrates and drives the growth of esports is the number of artists involved, both as fans, as players or investors.
One way to make games connect with more audiences is to publicly show the fact that artists like Cara Delevingne or Snoop Dogg play Call of Duty: Ghost or that NBA star Gordon Hayward is an avid Overwatch and League of Legends player.
On the other hand, a large number of traditional artists and athletes, such as Will Smith or Alex Rodriguez invest their money in the growing sports industry.
The above, without counting the artistic collaborations of celebrities, like Drake who shared a Fortnite game with the American streamer Ninja, or Imagine Dragons playing for the LoL Worlds 2014 opening ceremony.
Power up internet
Finally, an important factor demonstrating the growth of esports is how the industry has made its way through the Internet.
From a certain perspective, this was quite logical, since this type of games works fundamentally online. However, in addition to the immense birth of new pages dedicated to this industry, hundreds of pages home to traditional sports or news have absorbed the competition by dedicating a space to esports.
In this way, today you can see esports news in pages of the size of the New York Times, or do esports betting in casino pages like Betway.
Will esports be able to reach the traditional sport?
Time will tell what will happen to these two industries. However, due to their resemblance, it is most likely that they will combine absorbing somehow each other.
As we already know, there are dozens of sports clubs born by the traditional sport that already have professional teams of esports in the top tier tournaments –Such are the cases of Football Team Valencia and Sacramento Kings.
