As a whole, esports has certainly taken the world by storm as year after year it continues to pull in huge viewer and player numbers, oftentimes even rivaling or surpassing that of the biggest traditional sporting events in the world. A perfect example came from the 2019 League of Legends World Championships – peaking at over 100 million viewers total, and a suggested 44 million concurrent viewers, even some of the biggest sporting events such as the Superbowl which was able to reach a similar 100 million viewers but fewer than 5 million concurrent viewers, it shows just how far space has come. It’s often easy to forget that esports has only really been around for the past two decades, and even then, only in its current form for the past decade with the big streaming platform partnerships. But what is the future for esports, and where can it realistically go from here?
A changing of the old guard? – There have been a few titles that have been synonymous with space, the old guard of games that make up the majority of esports viewership in the big three games of League of Legends, DotA 2, and Counter-Strike. These titles are also responsible for other factors in esports as this cs-go betting review shows how betting within esports as a whole began, but is it time for a replacement? This is already being seen in the very same title with Valorant looking to move in on the FPS space, and whilst LoL and DotA continue to innovate and change the meta, there are always suggestions that a replacement for either could be just around the corner.
Growing opportunity for those a little obscure – Another suggestion is that the smaller titles that make up the lower rungs of esports will start to see growth too with a changing audience – traditional sporting titles like FIFA and NBA2K certainly represent this space with the growing popularity over the past year or so, and particularly with a casual audience looking for something a little more familiar, these could be the most popular titles in the market. A big drawback here is often in the money, where the bigger esports titles can offer millions per year in prize pool money, sometimes these smaller games aren’t willing to make the commitment, which often keeps the scene smaller.
More accessibility, if at all possible – Much of the success for esports has come through accessibility that is unmatched – many games being free-to-play offers little restriction to those looking to get started, and with the big event broadcasts also all being free it means any viewer can tune in to watch any game without worry of a paywall or subscription. If at all possible, more accessibility would certainly help the future of esports, whether that’s through game genres or changing attitudes, but this certainly does seem to be something currently happening given the changing and growing audience that continues to be seen.