Additionally, prize pools for major esports events have skyrocketed, with significant sums of money awarded to top-performing teams and players. Esports has also attracted investment from venture capitalists and traditional sports franchises looking to capitalize on its popularity and potential. Esports gaming, in its simplest form, is organized, competitive video gaming. Think of it as the digital equivalent of traditional sports, but instead of physical prowess, it’s all about skill, strategy, and teamwork within a virtual environment.

​​Esports became popular in large part because of the link slot gacor social component of livestreaming and gaming. Its inclusivity of gaming, media, pop culture, and ecommerce shines a light on opportunities beyond gaming events alone. The pinnacle of competitive play is The International, an annual tournament organized by Valve.

According to Newszoo’s 2018 Global Esports Market Report, the esports industry is estimated to be worth nearly one billion dollars within the next year – that’s a year-on-year increase of a whopping 38%. In addition, Newszoo  estimates that by 2019, 427 million people worldwide will be watching esports (via ESPN). As of 2023, Johan Sundstein (N0tail), a Danish Dota 2 player, holds the record for the highest overall earnings in esports, with over $7.18 million throughout his career. Although there may be some fatigue with some esports as of late, that’s been felt by many sports over the years, such as English Football in the mid-1980s. It’ll pass, especially with the rise of technologies, such as virtual reality and mobile esports, ensuring that the industry is set to grow more over the next 50 years and beyond. With this in mind, we’re going to break down the history of esports, revealing the factors that contributed to its growth and where it stands today.

Esports World Cup Returns To Riyadh With A Record $70 Million Prize Pool Amid Saudi Gaming Push

By fostering partnerships, embracing evolving trends, and respecting the community’s values, marketers can effectively leverage the esports landscape. The Esports World Cup is a global event that celebrates esports competition and fandom that debuted in 2024. Returning to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in summer 2025, it features a unique format where top esports Clubs and over 1,500 players compete for the biggest prize pool in esports history. The Pokémon series of turn-based strategy video games are played competitively.[137] A Pokémon Company-sponsored world championship organized by their Play! These championships host games based on the mainline series of video games, as well as the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games are historically a spin-off of real-time strategy games, but are different enough that they are now generally considered a separate genre.

In 1980 a more mainstream contest, the National Space Invaders competition, took place in which thousands of competitors vied to set a high score in the game, which was first created by the video game company Taito in Japan. The esports world took another step toward a more organized landscape in 1982 when businessman Walter Day established Twin Galaxies, an organization dedicated to recording players’ high scores on different arcade games. Popular esports genres include multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), first-person shooter (FPS), real-time strategy, fighting, and simulated sports. There’s no catch-all solution to tune in to esports events, but the overwhelming majority will be streamed on Twitch. To find the specific events taking place, the website Esports Calendar is a handy resource that lists most events happening for the bigger games in the esports industry. Pretty much every single esports event will be streamed live, whether it’s the biggest annual competition or a regional qualifier for a league.

“I was a very wicked Space Invaders player back in the arcade days, and that dates me,” he laughs. That gave me nightmares.” Today, his go-to “turn off your brain” game is Scopely’s own Tripeaks Solitaire. But not having time to commit to mastering modern games, he remains in awe of the dedication and skill of esports pros — as well as the people behind-the-scenes who organize the tournaments.

Grand Valley State University

Cloud9 (C9) is a North American organization that started back in 2013 when former Team SoloMid manager Jack Etienne bought the Quantic Gaming LoL team for $15,000. Six years later, C9 has grown to become one of the most valuable esports companies, worth over $150 million according to Forbes. Later that year however, Samsung announced that they would no longer be sponsoring teams, which led to the organization being acquired by KSV eSports, which then rebranded to Gen.G Esports in 2018. As Gen.G, the organization expanded to other titles such as CoD, PUBG, Fortnite, and Overwatch — where it owns the Overwatch League franchise Seoul Dynasty. The organization made its name across various FPS games, when it was still known as FaZe Sniping and had its logo in virtually every FPS montage video online.

While the team has been struggling to go back to the form it had during its glory days, SKT T1’s utter dominance of the LoL scene was undeniable, being the only franchise to boast three world championship under its belt. On Mar. 27, the Department of Esports and Co-Curricular Innovation officially launched the OU Esports & Gaming Venue to the public. A multi-year effort has culminated in the event, which marks the beginning of weekly operations for OU students and staff. This announcement bolsters our public facing programing events that come out of our community efforts in the OU Gaming Club. This starts the focus on stabilizing and growing our communities and student development opportunities focused around event planning, facilitation, and strategic design. ECCI launches a research committee focusing on further defining esports as a topic of opportunity and impact.