Over the years, countless professional eSports tournaments have been organized where experienced gamers and teams have participated. The sport has witnessed a dramatic rise in viewership during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is mostly because people missed live sports during this period and eSports seemed like a viable alternative.
It is mostly popular in the continent of Asia. In fact, it is believed that around 50% of more than 1 billion eSports viewers will stem from Asia within 4 years. Thus, it is evident that eSports is taking over Asia at a quite rapid rate. More specifically, it was seen that the Industry of eSports upscaled its revenue by 4.9 per cent in 2020 in comparison to 2019. It was also included as an event in the Southeast Asian Games in 2019. Moreover, it has been confirmed that eSports will be included in the coming year’s Asian Games in Hangzhou as well.
Esports in China
As per recent research, the total worth of the eSports gaming sector in the market of China during 2020 was around 140 billion Chinese Yuans. If you wish to know the value in terms of USD, 1 Yuan is equivalent to 0.15 US dollars. It is almost equivalent to 22 billion USD.
The country has been home to more than 250 million people who are avid gamers and love to participate and enjoy the tournaments. The most popular video games in China are League of Legends and Dota 2. However, professional individuals and teams also play other games to bag the prize money. We have listed some of the most popular eSports organizations in China. They are an extremely professional set of individuals whose tactics are playing hard and overcoming new challenges in less time.
- Royal Never Give Up
- EHOME
- Invictus Gaming
Esports in Vietnam
As per statistics, around 75% of residents in Vietnam have some sort of experience with eSports. This means that they might have watched and participated in eSports tournaments. Moreover, the number of eSports players have surged to around 18 million in Vietnam this year, that is 2021. It was confirmed by VIRESA or Vietnam Recreational and Electronic Sports Association on 10th June. They published the numbers in the Vietnamese Esport 2021 first edition.
Esports started gaining a firm foothold in Vietnam in 2020. It was due to the Covid-19 outbreak. While everyone was locked up in their respective homes due to social distancing, most people turned to egaming. Around 80% of players dedicated most of their time to eSports with around 52.2% devoting an average of 3 hours every day.
The eSports broadcasting platforms also reported a surge in viewership in Vietnam and Japan (also home to many of the best online casinos in Japan). Facebook was the most popular platform, followed by YouTube. Moreover, a lot of Vietnamese natives also accounted for the massive amount of viewership of the Arena World Championship 2020 on YouTube. It was close to 109 million, which is almost double the number of viewers in 2019.
Popular eSports platforms in Asia
Some of the most popular eSport platforms in Asia are Twitch, Youtube Gaming, Facebook Gaming and Garena Live while many are also taking up key partnerships as a way to step into the space. However, China is an exception to this. Out of these platforms, Youtube Gaming took the lead. It accounted for 58%, 56.9%, 53.35, and 52.1% viewership and participation in Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan and Malaysia respectively. Besides this, Facebook Gaming is the leading platform in the Philippines with around 63.8 % of players.
Influence of eSports on the new generation
Gen Z consists of people who were born after 1997 and most of this generation own video game consoles. In fact, around 66% of millennials own video game consoles whereas 78% of Gen Z own the same. In older times, eSports was merely a hobby. However, Generation Z has changed this stigma and has managed to make it a major thing in the professional Industry with many countries now offering educational courses in esports and a growing number of students considering esports as a potential career path.
With the increasing popularity of eSports, other forms of media have also begun promoting it. This includes the hip-hop industry. Popular rappers such as ASAP Rocky and Nicki Minaj have made references to eSports in their songs called Buck Shots and Chun li respectively. Thus, this is also a source of influencing the generation.
Conclusion
Esports has experienced a massive boost in Asia due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in the number of smartphones, gaming consoles and development in the IT sector has helped it thrive and garner a stable foothold among the masses. The number of channel subscriptions and donations to streamers have also increased over the past few years.
As per statistics and reports, eSport gamers will constitute about 30% of the world’s population this year. This will supposedly increase the revenue in the gaming market to around 189.3 billion dollars, with Southeast Asia and China being the major contributors.