If it’s in the game, ”it’s in the game” - eSports take over.. until it's over?
The popularity of eSports or "watching other people play video games competitively" has been on the rise for years, with audiences of millions watching teams of expert players do battle in games ranging from FIFA to Fortnite in a bid to win trophies and serious cash.
As the popularity has grown so has the sponsorship, teams and prize money - not to mention the stadiums the finals take place in. This growth has also seen entire TV channels popping up dedicated solely to covering eSports, but probably the most impressive figures are the numbers tuning into streaming platforms to watch their favourite players do battle.
Back in 2018 the average daily viewing figures breached the 1 million mark and they have been rising steadily since. Looking at recent figures, the biggest leap has been the change from January to April 2020, where the viewing figures on the popular streaming service Twitch almost doubled, from an average of 1.3m per day to almost 2.5m with an all-time high of 4.4m concurrent viewers, coinciding with the launch of the new first person shooter game "Valorant".
Individual game launches and competitions aside, the huge leap over the past few months has undoubtably been due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With government directives forcing everyone to stay at home, coupled with the cancellation of every sporting event across much of the world, there has all of a sudden been an entirely new demographic open up to the eSports genre - the sports fan.
Sports make up an important part of many people's lives and with the complete absence of competition ‘in real life’ it's perhaps no wonder that those of us looking for a team to root for have turned to the only live action left.
This draw has only been boosted by the fact that some professional sports leagues currently on hold have participated in eSports events that have been televised on major sports networks, with actual players representing their teams in knockout competitions. From the Premier League's "ePremierLeague Invitational" to the NBA's "NBA 2K Players Tournament" we have seen partnerships between TV networks and games manufacturers, along with new sponsorship flooding in and gambling companies pivoting to this newly popular industry.
The question is, now this industry has been opened to a wider audience, how can it keep these new spectators once the sports leagues of the world are back up and running? Is this simply a spike out of necessity for those needing sport in their lives, who will slip back to the "real world" once we start seeing live sport return?
If eSports is going to take full advantage of the current surge and hold onto these "fair-weather fans," it will need to tap into and try to replicate the excitement and spectacle that is a live sporting event. Thinking outside the conventional "tune in and watch" that is the typical method of consumption, and breaking into the tribalism that flows through so much of the sporting world will be required.
Marketing will play a huge part of course, and hosting events "IRL" will help bring some of the atmosphere, but growing a new community is something that takes any venture time to perfect. Just as you can't force people to have a good time, you can’t build fanatics without the deep interest in the subject matter.
Perhaps it’s the in-game content such as the recent Travis Scott concert held within the Fornite game - crossing the boundary between virtual and real life stars, or maybe clubs could start hosting regular eSports matches in their stadiums, streaming their own team’s games to big screens rolled onto the playing surface - as some smaller clubs have done for fans unable to attend cup fixtures in the past.
Whatever it is, eSports needs that hook that will bring people back after the traditional leagues return. By then they may think it's all over, but it's not.. Yet.
