Few things to know about esports

Short for electronic sports, esports are a subset of gaming video content and are defined by Insider Intelligence as organised gaming competitions among professional players and teams. In practice, esports are multiplayer video games played competitively for spectators by professional gamers.

Interestingly, like traditional sports, many esports tend to feature the same structure, such as having leagues, teams, and players.

The esports industry has seen tremendous growth over the years, both in terms of viewership and revenue. One of the main reasons there has been growth in esports viewership is that more people are still learning about it. There has been a tremendous rise in awareness of the esports industry since 2015. You might be here for this reason 😉

The Newzoo 2022 report on esports highlights that the number of esports enthusiasts (those people who watch professional esports content more than once a month ) will grow to 318 million in 2025. In 2025, the total audience will surpass 640 million people across the globe. 

For a game to be successful in a professional competition, it must be entertaining to watch for fans who are not participating. It also needs to be challenging to master, and require a very high level of skill to play but be easy for fans to follow. Some of the most established and popular esports include:

An important factor that your initiative/club/organisation should consider when choosing games is the PEGI age rating. PEGI stands for “Pan European Game Information” and is a common European age rating system.

Esports vs gaming – what are the differences?

While we could have remained with the provided distinction that esports are a subset of gaming video content, we believe it’s important to dig deeper into the relationship between the two cultures. 

In the following video, partners from the EGS project help us clarify the differences and similarities between Esports and gaming. 

Today, the esports business ecosystem closely resembles the traditional sports business in which the key stakeholders include event organisers, professional teams/players, sponsors, broadcasters, and fans/audiences. The one key difference is however, in contrast to traditional sports, that game publishers, as the content providers, are included. In addition, gaming and esports are largely individualised and home-based activities, whether as a player or spectator.

Few key takeaways

There are various interpretations of what the esports industry encompasses.

🎮 Esports is not as new as most of us may think. The first esports event (even if the term was not coined yet) was held back in 1972 at Stanford University! However, modern-day esports emerged in the 2000’s 

🎮 In today’s world, gaming covers playing any number of games with the main purposeto have fun, be in a community and is only as competitive as you want it to be, whereas esports are highly competitive.

🎮 Unlike in traditional sports, where nobody ‘owns’ the game as such, in video games a whole host of (physical or legal) persons may have proprietary rights to the game or its components.

🎮 Esports and gaming can be a strong tool to create socially inclusive environments for especially young people. They offer many possibilities to engage and activate people around a common interest.

Resources to go deeper and topic material

Name of the material	Why it matters / What you will find
PEGI Age rating explanation 🔗	WHY – If you want to ensure clarity regarding the age appropriateness issue of some game. WHAT – Concise explanation of the current PEGI rating and advises on the topic You can also check the PEGI official webpage: https://pegi.info/what-do-the-labels-mean
Newzoo’s Global Esports & Live Streaming Market Report 2022 🔗	WHY – If you want to discover more about the Esports phenomenon. WHAT – The report provides high level insights on Esports and includes 2022 global esports market sizing, forecasts, insights into mobile esports, blockchain gaming, co-streaming and much more.
Esports vs Gaming 🔗	WHAT – Transcript of the video
5 things to do when your child sets their sights on esports🔗	WHY – to get some challenging view and interesting tips on how to react when a child loves esports WHAT – In this blog article,  Andy Robertson, shares his experiences on how a parent or guardian can become more involved with their children in esports.