The Future of Esports

There are various definitions of esports. Newzoo³ describes it as “professional or semi-professional competitive gaming in an organized format (tournament or league) with a specific goal/prize, such as winning a championship title or prize money.”

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Esports industry insights

How popular is esports and where is it heading? Newzoo’s Global Esports and Live Streaming Market Report 2021⁴ – one of the industry’s most trusted sources for esports statistics, market forecasting and analysis – predicts that:

• The global esports audience will grow to 474 million people in 2021, a year-on-year growth of +8.7%. Esports enthusiasts will make up 234 million of this number, growing +8.7% year on year. (Newzoo defines ‘esports audience’ as all people who watch professional esports, regardless of frequency and ‘esports enthusiasts’ as people who watch professional esports more than once a month.)
• China will have the most esports enthusiasts in 2021 – 92.8 million – followed by the US and Brazil.
• The global esports audience number will pass 500 million in 2022 and reach 577.2 million by 2024.
• Global esports revenues will hit $1,084 million in 2021, a year-on-year growth of +14.5%, up from $947.1 million in 2020. This is the first time the industry has ever crossed the ten-figure threshold.
• $833.6 million in revenue – more than 75% of the total market – will come from sponsorship and media rights.
• The global games live streaming audience will reach 728.8 million in 2021, up by 10% from 2020.

Future direction of esports

Rolling Stone magazine believes we are “living in a golden age of esports”⁵, describing its evolution from an underground movement to mainstream pop culture over the past decade. But where is it heading next? We predict key trends that will shape esports future growth over the next five to 10 years based on recent industry developments.

Scholastic esports

Esports nowadays has shifted from being primarily for professional players to the college, university, high school and middle school circuits. Across the US, 175 colleges and universities are members of the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE)⁶ and offer varsity esports programs. In 2013, the High School Esports League⁷ (HSEL) was founded in 2013 in the US. It is the largest competitive gaming organization for high school students – with over 3,600 partnered schools and 140,000 participating students – and a growing membership base. In 2020, the Middle School Esports League (MSEL)⁸ was launched for students to develop key life skills such as teamwork and leadership, and learn about the career paths available in esports. We predict that an Elementary School Esports League will soon offer the same opportunities to younger students and that scholastic esports will take off in other countries over the next few years, as it has in the US.

Parents will enroll their kids in esports instead of traditional sports

In traditional sports there is an entire infrastructure based on players’ skill levels, with different leagues for different standards. Young players progress through the system until they eventually stop playing or become pro. This trajectory is likely to be the same for esports in future. It will be attractive to parents for several reasons – esports is accessible from home, they don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars going to tournaments, there is less risk of long-term injuries than traditional sports and it offers multiple benefits including teamwork, communication, leadership and confidence. A future esports trend is therefore likely to be parents choosing to enroll their kids in esports instead of traditional sports.

Rise of women in esports

Although almost half of gamers are female⁹, few women are on the professional esports circuit. There are several initiatives currently in place to tackle the underrepresentation of women in esports:

• Formula One has introduced an F1 Esports Series Women’s Wildcard¹⁰ as there has never been a female driver competing in professional Formula One esports ranks.
• In 2021, Riot Games launched its VCT Game Changers programme¹¹ exclusively for female players in North America and the EMEA region.
• Campaigns and groups have been set up that promote women within esports such as Female Legends¹², AnyKey¹³, Women in Esports¹⁴ (part of the British Esports Association) and more.

We predict that over the next few years, female esports players will have better access to equal opportunities, treatment and conditions. Read our blog: The problem with women in esports¹⁵.

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