For every type of entertainment, there are loyal fans who are there to cheer for either an artist, character or musician. Every single type of fanbase is different in many different regards. Sports fans, however, are perhaps the most unique and passionate because they follow live events and do not know what is going to happen next.
Most sports fans are similar and act in similar ways. From tailgating to watching sports at bars, the typical sports fan personifies a certain image. This image is mostly consistent in many different types of sports.
Esports fans, however, personify a different image for many different reasons. To start off, it is important to recognize that esports and other sports are similar for many reasons. Esports, however, is very different from other sports in even more aspects which all affect fan experience.
Esports have a different experience following and watching their favorite players and teams because of the popularity of streaming on different platforms. Fans are able to follow their favorite esports players live and see exactly what they are seeing. They can see how to play their favorite games from the point of view of the players. In others sports fans either have to watch from the sidelines or an overhead camera.
Streaming also makes it easier for the fans to learn more personal information about the streamer and can make the fans become more attached to the streamers. It lets fans follow their favorite stars for free and easily whenever they want to. It is easy to be an Esports streaming fan because of how simple it is to be able to follow a stream.
Esports is different for fans in terms of attending matches because it is a different experience. These stadiums are being built all around the world.
Esports are able to be viewed in many different ways which made it easier for all fans to see the same angle and point of view when attending the game. This means that online fans all have the same high quality experience when watching the event occur. In some cases online fans can pay more and watch from different perspectives to get a different experience.
This means that all fans who are watching the game live have the same view, which makes paying more money for tickets less necessary (even though one can get closer to the players). It is a different experience for fans watching many screens from different points of view in comparison to watching the traditional sports game from the sideline. Therefore, everyone at the Esports event is able to watch the game from the same high quality angle across different platforms, any time, any where.
Esports as a whole is unique because many fans follow specific stars as opposed to teams (which also have a popular following), while many traditional sports are team sports. Esports also is popular globally, as many sports (especially American sports) are more unique to different countries.
These qualities of Esports fans have caused the overall popularity of the sport to grow dramatically and attendance at esports competitions to increase. According to an article published by Business Insider, Esports events have seen very high attendance. It said that the IEM World Championship in Katowice Poland had 173,000 attend it. It also said that the event had 46 million viewers which are a new high for Esports.
Not only is the experience of being an Esports fan is a lot different than being a traditional fan, but the number of these types of fans is also growing. It will continue to grow for years to come and many people will be able to experience the Esports atmosphere.
The popularity of Fortnite has also resulted in the industry beginning to look into different forms of making money off of it. According to an article by VentureBeat, Esports fans do not spend as much money as other sports fans by a wide margin. The article goes on to state that the industry has many different choices on how they want to drive revenue. It describes the choices Esports has to capture money from its fans as media rights, sponsorships, events and, more options.
