Esports & Gaming Roundtable H
ere’s what Mike Hart, BOX’s Marketing Manager and Toby Roberts, co-owner of Wired2Fire had to say.
What would you say is the current state of the esports market? Mike Hart, Box: “Te esports industry continues to grow at significant pace, growing on average by 8.5% per year. Various Lockdowns across the world have further accelerated its growth through booming viewership figures and greater buy-in from traditional professional sports associations. As the demand for competitive esports content grows and with the emergence of new teams, the opportunity for resale into this market grows too. Not just in the physical kit required by the players and teams, but the influence these esports players have over their fanbase to sell the same or similar equipment to the millions watching at home.”
Toby Roberts, Wired2Fire: “Competitive titles are as old as gaming itself, from Pong to Bomberman, through Doom, Quake, Streetfighter II and Mario Kart, all seeing gamers huddled together around arcade machines, living room TVs and playing over networks. Esports is just an evolution of this aspect of gaming, and is growing fast. But only now is it attracting widespread interest outside of the traditional gaming sphere.”
What are the best gaming platforms out there in particular, which are most favoured by esports fans? Mike Hart Box: “Twitch is undoubtedly the biggest platform among esports players and fans alike. It’s deep rooted live streaming background perfectly suits competitive need-to-watch live gameplay like no other, while YouTube provides a bigger audience, but instead serves a more casual watch-when-it-suits experience. Facebook have certainly made big strides with their gaming platform hosted within their native app. Te abundant Facebook groups that cultivate communities for each of our favourite games, combined with their immensely clever algorithm, enables Facebook to recommend content based on our previous browsing and interaction history. Tis provides esports streamers with a set of fantastic tools to grow their audience on this platform, due to the ease of discovery and given the fact that most of the world have a login, so are able to interact without needing an account that they may not have or be signed into.”
Toby Roberts, Wired2Fire: “Twitch and Youtube are the two biggest esports platforms, as they make it so easy to get started with live streaming gaming events, and these platforms offer all the support required. Most players start on those platforms and immediately have access to large potential audiences, which matters a lot as a way to build up a reputation.”
How are you seeing the esport market evolve? What are the current trends? Mike Hart, Box: “Esports is becoming big business fast and many companies, celebrities and sports organisations are taking note! With notable owners such as Drake, Mike Tyson and Will Smith, not to mention many sports franchise owners investing
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into this market, the esports scene is quickly filling up with high profile teams financially backed to succeed. Tis investment has been replicated by many historic sports organisations within the UK who look to tap into online gaming and gain more influence within this space given the synergy between the real sport and the virtual equivalent.”
Toby Roberts, Wired2Fire: “An objective way to measure the success of esports is through growth of prize funds, which are now at a level where they rival traditional sports. Last year the winning Dota 2 team in the official International tournament took home over $18m between them, which is quite incredible, and rivalling prize funds from traditional sports. Tese pools will only get bigger in time and that will generate even more interest.”
Where do you predict the future of the esport market going? What can we expect to see more of? Mike Hart, Box: “As investment grows within esports, prize pots will rise too, attracting the biggest professional players to compete in top tier tournaments. Tis will culminate in more advertising opportunities fuelling the product’s growth. However to be truly accepted and deemed equal among their physical sporting counterparts, esports will need to reach mainstream media, with their players becoming modern day celebrities covered by sporting and news outlets in the same way that top professional sports stars are. Tere have been many breakout YouTube stars, although to gain more fame many have turned to other ventures including film, tv and boxing to grow their audience. Esports will need to develop its own stars that capture the public’s interest and largely stay within this sector in order for esports to be taken to the next level. Something, which is sure to happen in the next few years.”
Toby Roberts, Wired2Fire: “Tere is still plenty of room for growth in esports that will see even bigger audiences, but this currently varies around the world. For example in the UK we’re not used to events being broadcast on TV, but it’s already quite common in South Korea, where esports is proving very popular.”
“The esports industry continues to grow at significant pace, growing on average by 8.5% per year.”
March 2022 | 35
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