Decades ago, if you had proposed the idea of tens of thousands of people gathering in a stadium-like arena to watch teams sit at computers and play video games, laughter would have been the likely reply. Today, though, there are dozens of major Esports competitions that all attract massive and diverse crowds worldwide. Not only that, but these competitions award tens of millions in prize money. There are fan favourites, opportunities for Esports betting, and a heavily-followed season of news just like any “real” sport.
How did we get to the point where Esports were reaching the same levels of popularity as other forms of entertainment? How did video gaming become a must-see stadium event? The history of competitive gaming is surprisingly long. With advances that built upon each other and the onward march of technological progress, we’ve reached the mature Esports market we have today. Let’s look at how it happened.
Esports Began Earlier Than You Might Think
The roots of today’s Esports lie decades back in the arcades of yesteryear. While there were some early private competitions in the 1970s with primitive early games, the advent of arcade cabinets and high score-chasing fans made competitive gaming a real possibility. When thousands of players turned out to compete for the highest score in the classic Space Invaders, it signalled to developers that there was a strong appetite for competition among gamers. This would ultimately lead to the first major competitions involving players duelling head-to-head on titles such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.
Community Multiplayer Laid the First Foundations
Although they weren’t called “Esports” yet, competitive fighting games laid the foundation for the future of this space. Throughout the 1990s, many of the largest gaming competitions would create the original models for large-scale Esports events. The Evolution Championship Series, also known simply as “Evo,” got its start in 1996 and continues to this day as one of the longest-running Esports series in the world. With more games developed for multiplayer, the potential for the industry became even clearer. This was the time when the first Esports broadcasts on TV took place.
Online Gaming Forges New Connections
Consoles and arcade cabinets of the time limited the number of players who could compete against one another and often required players to be in the same space. The advent of online gaming and the birth of such famous titles as the original Counter-Strike triggered a change. Suddenly, competitive online gaming was more than a niche — it was fast becoming a market segment all its own.
Better Technology Makes Esports a Reality
Technological bottlenecks held competitive Esports back throughout the late 90s and early 2000s. The potential for something huge was obvious, but slow computers and even slower internet speeds often made it difficult to execute the format successfully. There were even serious questions about whether Esports could survive as a genre for a time. However, as broadband speeds increased and the advent of on-demand video streaming became available to the average user, something began to change. Before long, one of the biggest factors in the rise of Esports around the world would explode onto the scene: Twitch.tv.
Livestreaming Takes Esports Mainstream and Viewership Explodes
It is hard to overstate the scope of the revolution created by the innovative and responsive streaming technology behind Twitch. Suddenly, anyone with the right setup could broadcast themselves to the world — and just as suddenly, there was no need to wrangle over TV rights and media broadcast rules to share the biggest Esports events in the world. Coinciding roughly with the rising popularity of League of Legends, the maturation of Twitch as a platform gave Esports a vast new audience. That audience exhibited an unending demand for Esports content, commentary, and more. Following teams from around the world became a pastime just like it does for fans of field sports, prize pools ballooned, and the demand for in-person events soared.
Esports Takes Over the Stadium
All these decades of development bring us to today, where tens of thousands of screaming fans pack into convention halls and stadiums to watch teams compete in games such as LoL, DOTA 2, Valorant and many others. Although the Covid-19 pandemic temporarily forced some of these events back into the digital-only space, the popularity of and demand for live Esports endures. The return and perhaps even the growth of stadium Esports events also seems inevitable.
What Will the Future Hold for Esports?
As a mature and still-growing industry, the upward trajectory of the Esports world will likely continue for some time. As companies continue to invest in creating new games, there is always the potential for the “next big thing” to be right around the corner. Through the exciting blend of new games and classic, established franchises, the size, scope, and value of this industry looks set to continue expanding.
Source: Plato Data Intelligence: PlatoData.io
