What in the world is Esports

When people think of sports they are pushed toward Baseball, Football, Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, etc. These are staples of the professional athletic world, but there is a world for competitive gaming. Esports is the term for the competitive gaming world that involves tournaments, leagues, and pools that engage the video game world with money and wagers. The Esports market is expected to hit a revenue of $4.3 Billion in 2024, which could be tough to believe. The goal is to give an explanation of what Esports involves and the best ways to get involved. 

Source of Image: https://influencermarketinghub.com/esports-stats/

The important thing to understand is where and why Esports was created. The idea of Esports was created in the 1950s when people could play video games against each other such as Tic-Tac-Toe and pong. This expanded tenfold year after year. From the 50s to the 80s there were small pushes to grow competitive gaming, but the growth came in the 90s. Nintendo launched the “Nintendo World Championships, " including Mario, Tetris, & Rad Racer. With higher levels of technology, they could create tournaments at local blockbusters and other gaming lounges. 

As technology and the internet grew stronger the world gained Worldwide gaming. This launched Esports into a new realm of how it was portrayed and used. As the early 2000s rolled around Major League Gaming (MLG) was created. They opened up the door to larger hosted events and more dynamic tournaments. This allowed for live internet broadcasts, in-person events, and much more. Some examples of games are; Call of Duty, Overwatch, Halo, Super Smash, and Madden. [Here is a list of more games: List of Games].

If we look at the current day the world of Esports is exploding into different leagues and avenues. We highlighted some of the larger games, but there are competitions for games of all sizes. It is said that during 2025 the live-streaming audience could reach up to 1.41 billion people globally. This is partially due to the global push that Esports holds and due to the number of covered events (College, local, national, and international). There is a global level hold for Esports and the people who want to play and watch it. Now Esports does not have the level of money and coverage that other sports do, but they still have large earnings. Within 2022 the total prize money for 5,000+ tournaments was just over $237,000,000. There was a range with total tournament prizes, but there is money within Esports and this will continue to rise.

This article is the first one within the series of gaming and esports. We set the backbone of Esports before we dive into more details. In future articles of this series, we will dive into different leagues and areas of Esports (Call of Duty League, Overwatch League, College Esports, and more).