E-Sports watchability

Watching Valorant Champions Tour with my 13yo and intrigued and impressed that this is much more accessible to watch than i would have thought. Clearly he’s watching this with more way more appreciation and understanding than me but it’s not required. I am able to have some “oh wow” appreciation moments regardless. Do wonder how much this space grows as a spectator thing over the next 10-15 years.

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I am an avid watcher of e-sports, and major championship finals can get at least 300,000 viewers, in some cases up to a million. A lot of VC money is involved.

Ps. I am 30 years old, so not “young” in terms of e-sports.

Of note, most area colleges now have esports teams. It has become a point of emphasis for a lot of small colleges looking for a way to generate interest and revenue.

Some significant investments being made in facilities also:

Esports for the Pack | College of Engineering.

As melo mentioned, the major games already fill arenas for the finals matches and draw massive viewing audiences. For example, League of Legends (LoL) has gotten over 2 million viewers at peak time since 2017, peaking this past year with over 5 million viewers at peak time.

It’s pretty incredible. I’m curious about long term growth of individual games. Video games have so far had a much shorter shelf life than traditional sports, and being good at one game doesn’t mean you’ll be any good at another (though certainly can help.) So, I’m very curious to see how the landscape works as games come in and out of favor.

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