Is future of Esports influenced by Streaming platforms?

With streaming becoming more and more popular, there is more reach and scope for esports
By Aaryanshi Mohan | Sep 28, 2021 | 4 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

The rise of Esports has been monumental over the last few years, and there is no doubt that a lot of money is being pumped into the industry. A lot of surveys predict the esports audience will grow to 434 million viewers this year. 

The increase in the popularity graph came during the pandemic, at a time when content consumption was extremely high and many viewers who were stuck at home wanted more and more forms of entertainment escapism. Since all activities around the globe came to a stand-still, so did sports, and with the lack of live sports, more and more streamers gained traction. It’s expected that the esports streaming and gaming industry will grow to $3.5 billion by the end of 2025. As esports continues to become more relevant, has streaming become more and more relevant?

With the world streaming more now than ever, it is essential to know how the online world impacts the television viewership and what the future holds for the media and entertainment industry. 

Power of Esports

From a cricket match to the Olympics, television was the go-to medium for people to watch all the live matches and events. However, much like anything else, change is inevitable and innovation is necessary for survival. The accessibility and connectivity of esports has made the events more and more desirable for people around the globe. 

Esports is now a new content format for all, and millennials and Gen Zers are all showing their inclination towards the niche. It’s evident that through streaming, esports is putting interconnectivity at the forefront of the future of media consumption. 

Esports has helped larger media platforms, like Twitch, gain prominence. Now, the question becomes, how does the rise of esports impact the streaming market? 

Untapped potential of esports

The pandemic was one of the major reasons that Twitch, YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming all reported significant increases with online viewing in 2020. Other platforms such as streaming TV saw its own surges, with reports now indicating that any gains the streaming TV niche saw during the pandemic is expected to be permanent in nature once people resume normality.

As the streaming TV category continues to grow to reach new, viewership, one can only believe and look forward to esports reaching many more platforms– both, ad-free and paid. There is clearly the demand, and streaming TV has the potential to take esports to a level it’s ever gone before. Having channels that are especially dedicated to esports and everything that surrounds it. Analysis could also be a major part of this new and coming niche.

As esports continues to establish itself as a major category in sports entertainment, it will have its own stars, analysts, and key tentpole moments. What esports can become in today’s streaming TV world is what traditional sports are on linear TV: a category’s worth of content dedicated toward everything from live events to key replays to industry insights, all projected at a national, local, and college level.

Here is why Esports will continue to flourish

Big sponsors

It hardly matters what Esport game one might support, one thing which cannot be denies is that the tournaments ahve a huge prize pool. Some of them, such as Dota 2, can even surpass 1,000,000, which is just insane.

What is more interesting is that each tournament doesn’t necessarily have a big sponsor. If that would have been the case, then the prize pool could have been veven greater. Having said that, in the most recent time, a lot has changed. If we talk specifically for India, a lot of big companies have now started seeing potential in the country’s Esports scene.

If this trend continues, it’s just a matter of time before Esports become more popular than football.

More people enter

Another reason why Esports fanfollowing could be greater than football’s is because of the fans. There is no arguing that the number of football fans right now is a lot more compared to Esports. It is expected tro change in the near future. Naturally, once those kids get older, they will probably continue to be interested in what they did when they were young.

Easily accessible

The fact that players can play games from their PC or laptop allows you to enjoy these games wherever you are. This is a huge difference between traditional sports and Esports, and that is why Esports is easily accessible. However, it will probably take some time for most people to learn how to play these games properly.