From high resolution online games to high quality gaming PCs even used in other lines of work such as graphic designing and programming, the businesses in the global eSports economy have grown to become the one of the most sought after by Venture Capitalists and Private Equity firms.
"The pop-culturalization of esports has helped power the explosions in esports investment and revenue." - eMarketer, Insider Intelligence (March 7, 2022).
Projected to generate nearly USD$2 billion by year end of 2025 (USD$1,886.2 billion approx.), the global eSports ecosystem has amassed a cult-like following, in particular within the USA and China. With the aid of video-gaming specific streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube gaming, fans, players, even investors have been enjoying an online interactive experience with one another.
The pop-culturalization of eSports, in particular the online streaming culture that saw its highest participation rates from the time of the pandemic's hardest lockdown periods, has provided the industry with strong headwind it so aggressively has been growing with. Even eSports merchandise, such as We Are Nations, has become a notably rising segment of the eSports industry.
The reported number of key investors within the US eSports economy alone in 2018 doubled from 34 Venture Capitalists & Private Equities in 2017, to 68 in 2018, as per Deloitte. In 2018, this also reflected with the hard figure of USD$4.5 billion being the total invested, as it was just USD$490 million the previous year. Price earnings ratios of public eSports company stocks such as Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI) and Sea Ltd. (SE) consistently project high-income earning future and lucrative returns for investors. This is unlike many other publicly traded firms that never truly have that high level of certainty that their annual revenue figures will grow in the future.
Money is commonly generated by the industry via media rights, live event ticket sales (like when Travis Scott performed online via the Fortnite gaming platform), merchandise sales, in-game purchases and the age old in-store or online purchasing of games. Online games such as League of Legends, Fortnite, Dota 2 and Teamfight Tactics are the ones usually played at professional gaming duels or tournaments.
YouTube has also invested into the professional online gaming world with some innovation, through the form of an online gaming competition called "uTure", where they'll award USD$100,000.00 to the winner.
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