When Esports comes up in conversation, there are usually two schools of thought: Either people believe that it is amazing (we agree), or they believe that it is not “a real sport” and try to attack it. The people who do not believe in Esports have to now understand that Esports is here to stay and grow into the future of sports. You can read about the differences between sports and esports one of our previous articles.
Esports is not only increasing in popularity, but its revenue is getting higher at a fast rate. According to an article published by Fortune.com, Esports had a 26.7 percent growth rate this past year. Revenue has increased to 1.1 billion dollars in 2019. These revenue numbers will propel Esports into being valued similarly to other sports around the world.
An article published by the Whitman School of Business at Syracuse University uses data from the company Activate to show the projection of viewership of Esports in comparison to the other sports by 2021.
The data projects that Esports will have 84 million viewers in the United States alone. This number will only be second to the NFL in terms of viewers in the United States (at 141 million viewers). ESports is projected to have more viewers than the MLS and the NBA combined in 2021.
The article also uses data to project that Esports global fans will climb to around 495 million globally by 2020, which is a jump of around 44 million fans.
Esports fans are not the only ones noticing the rapid growth of Esports in America and globally. Many famous Americans have seen growth and have begun to invest in different companies and teams.
There are so many different celebrities that have begun to invest in Esports that there are too many to count. What is interesting, however, is that many of the investors in Esports are athletes who play other sports or celebrities who are connected to other sports. They recognize that Esports is the sport of the future and that their own sport’s potential can not compare to it.
According to an article published by cnbc.com, examples of celebrities who are investing in Esports are NBA legend Michael Jordan, NBA star Steph Curry, musician Drake and much more. Each of these celebrities joined investing groups to invest in different Esports organizations.
Celebrity investment is advantageous because it benefits both sides of the investment. Celebrities will be able to reap the benefits of the expansion of the Esports and stay involved and the teams will be able to benefit from the celebrities’ popularity.
For example, fans of Drake or Steph Curry will become interested in the teams that they are investing in. This is another way in which new fans will be able to be introduced into Esports as a whole.
Sports organizations also realize Esports’ potential and are trying to get involved in Esports from investing in teams to helping build arenas.
The next time someone says that Esports is not “a real sport,” all you have to do is bring up some of the points brought up in this article. Other sports stars see its vast potential for expansion in the future, so everyone should as well. Esports is not only “a real sport”, but soon it will be the most profitable sport in the entire world.
