E-sports and Advertising!

The E-sports industry is growing at a neck-breaking pace. It is sometimes hard to imagine sports which were once about being outdoors on the field are now about who has better skills to survive, kill and earn more points on a screen. Yes, E-sports is here to stay with smartphones and internet reaching the remotest parts of the world. Tencent Game’s PUBG has crossed over 100 million downloads, worldwide, with India being third on the list behind the United States and China. It goes on to show that the game has been very well optimized and works without lags even on low-end phones. 

E-sports is different from traditional gaming, where you were mostly competing against the computer. Most gamer would crack the game and finish it, hence the thrill was over. That is not the case with e-sports, where you are competing against an actual human. It’s a battle between two human brains and the possibilities are infinite, unlike traditional gaming where the code had been written and the game would only throw certain things repeatedly which the gamer masters over time. 

• Games used to be limited, not anymore
• E-sports are strategic just like normal sports
• Involves emotions 
• Results oriented
• Olympic sport
• Why companies should be looking at it as a way to advertise to Gen Z

E-sports have similarities to actual sports; they are strategic, they require skills and people enjoy only watching it as well. Sports are interesting because athletes awe us with their athleticism, speed and accuracy and the gameplay makes it interesting with infinite possibilities. You may not see the athleticism in e-sports but you can see the agility, the brain power, the thought process and the strategic gameplay. Just like sports every player has stats associated with him which he/she can review and work on. In fact, stats are available only to international and national level players because the technology to track is so expensive. Also, it involves emotions and fanbase which is part of any sport at the end of the day. Recently, watched a video (https://bit.ly/2tYZyrk), where Dynamo, an Indian gamer’s fan started crying after he found him playing in the game, which goes onto show it is more than just gaming. 

Any sports at the end of the day drives viewership and with viewership comes business, mainly advertising. Many companies are already advertising in e-sports and it’s a great way to reach the Gen Z audiences especially. They are watching training videos and paying to see their superstars play. If a person is spending 3–4 hours a day behind his screen playing a game, that might be the best way to reach him/her. The competition for gaming companies might be tough because rolling out an e-sport is much easier than any on-field sport but it also means once it goes viral, there is no looking back.

I would love to hear your thoughts on E-sports in the comment section. Do they fascinate you as much?