by Lucas Schmidt
Another Super Bowl is down in the history books. While I didn't catch much of the game, I was certainly aware of when it was happening. My friends and everyone else I see on a regular basis seemed to slip the Super Bowl into a conversation at one point or another. My Twitter and Facebook feeds were bombarded with Super Bowl related content. The entire country seemed to have nothing on its mind but football, and during it all I couldn't help but wonder if esports might ever reach this level of popularity.
ESports, short for Electronic Sports, have been steadily gaining popularity during the last decade, and companies looking to sponsor are taking notice. Coca-Cola announced late last year that they will be sponsoring a new minor league series with Coke Zero. Other large companies like Logitech and American Express have also jumped on board. You don't get sponsors like that without having a large fan base. And the eSports fan base continues to grow.
The 2012 League of Legends championship drew 8.3 million viewers and had a $5 million prize pool League of Legends championship. That same championship in 2013 drew 32 million viewers, making it the most watched esports event yet. Yes, those numbers pale in comparison to the Super Bowl's 111 million viewers and the multi-million dollar salaries of NFL athletes. The average NFL game drew in 17.5 million viewers in 2011. But esports ratings are on the rise with the MLG reporting "massive growth" in its number of online viewers last year.
The 2012 League of Legends championship drew 8.3 million viewers and had a $5 million prize pool League of Legends championship. That same championship in 2013 drew 32 million viewers, making it the most watched esports event yet. Yes, those numbers pale in comparison to the Super Bowl's 111 million viewers and the multi-million dollar salaries of NFL athletes. The average NFL game drew in 17.5 million viewers in 2011. But esports ratings are on the rise with the MLG reporting "massive growth" in its number of online viewers last year.
The rise of esports makes more sense when broken down. Roughly 400 million people play online video games every day across the globe. So it should come as no surprise that there is a large enough audience of people who at least enjoys playing games competitively, let alone watching professionals play competitively. One of the most alluring aspect of esports is its ease of entry. Anyone can start entering tournaments, forming teams, and honing their skills online. All you need is a video game system, Internet, and the willingness to start networking with others. MLG's GameBattles network has been doing just that for years.
The GameBattles network allows anyone to make an account and start competitively battling other players online in their game of choice. There are teams, tournaments, regulators, sponsorships and yes, monetary prizes. This is a feature that no other sport can even come close to mimicking. The Internet is at the core of esports and in the Internet Age it makes sense that sports would be digitized and opened up to everyone to participate not just as a spectator, but also as an athlete. esports will quickly become the premier sport of the 21st century. It's already happened in South Korea where the government is now getting involved in aiding its video game industry and esports culture. Now it's happening in America.
Within the next 10 years ESPN will be regularly broadcasting live esport matches. So don't be too surprised when a round of Mortal Kombat lands a spot on one of their Top Ten segments.
