The esports industry has seen tremendous growth over the years in both views and revenue. The increase in views is what has mainly contributed to the revenue growth and it's not just because these viewers are generating revenue.
Brands, seeing the possibility of reaching a wider and more engaged audience, are investing in eSports marketing both directly and indirectly. This is what has mainly contributed to the rapid revenue growth in the industry.
Esports are growing in many other aspects as well, many of which are related in one way or another. Since 2016, there has been a significant increase in eSports viewers, both casual and enthusiastic viewers, i.e. viewers who watch it regularly.
Between 2016 and 2017, there was a 19,3% year-over-year increase. In 2017, there were 192 million casual viewers and 143 million fans, for a total of 335 million viewers.
In 2018, the year-on-year growth rate had declined slightly to 13,8%, although this was still a considerable increase. The following year there were 215 million casual viewers and 165 million fans. So the total audience size grew to 380 million.
By 2021, Newzoo expects the annual growth rate to be around 14%. They also predict that the number of casual viewers will grow to 307 million. And that there will be 250 million esports fans, for a total of 557 million spectators.
Payment of prizes in cryptocurrencies?
SBI esports, a Japanese company that is part of the SBI group that deals with financial services, has announced that the players who participate in its tournaments, will be paid in XRP in the near future, thanks to the sponsor VC Trade.
The company said it wants to pay its players in cryptocurrencies rather than fiat currencies, to bring even those who already regularly use digital currencies and practice eSports closer to this world.
SBI esports has been collaborating with XRP for a long time and therefore this agreement only goes in the direction of differentiating its portfolio in the blockchain sector. Its goal would be to create a customer-based market by improving prices and expanding liquidity.
At the time of writing this article, Ripple has one quotation of market that exceeds 10 billion dollars, making it the 4th digital currency by market value.
In 2019, Project Xpring and Forte, a blockchain platform aimed at games, jointly established a $ 100 million fund to support game development.
The head of growth of Virtually Human Studio, an entertainment studio, Mac Ocampo had previously complained that "not all players are trading crypto and not all traders are gamers". Ocampo thought this was one of the main challenges facing the video game market and esports in general.
