Introduction
Electronic sports, popularly known as Esports, is a type of competition that includes video games. It is organized in the form of multiplayer online games tournament which is participated in by individual players or teams of players.
Though esports has always been a part of the culture, it saw its rise in the recent past. With professional players joining the battlefield, investors and developers showing interest, and organizers raising the budgets and taking it to higher platforms, Esports seems to have acquired a strong place in the world of sports as well.
From the first video game competition, held in 1972 at Stanford, contemporary esports saw its growth since the 1990s. India ranked 16th on the Forbes list making it a billion-dollar industry.
Started by a few gaming enthusiasts, today esports employs over 40,000 individuals in India. In the year 1997, two teams- 4Kings and SK Gaming were introduced. Today, teams like OrangeRock, TSM ENTITY, and Celtz are the top teams of the nation playing the best games in India like PUBG, COD, Freefire, etc., and representing the country internationally. India has also hosted some major significant tournaments like the PUBG mobile series 2019 and the Electronic Sports League which also had participants of DOTA 2 players from all around the world.
Counter-Strike when first released in 2012 did not have its popularity back then but the present recognition of India in the field of Esports has a lot to do with Counter-strike. DOTA 2 on the other hand became the first game to dominate the Indian market.
Stakeholders and their role in this field: –
To encompass the field of online gaming E-commerce platforms have played an important role by making the hardware and accessories for gaming easily purchasable. From ASUS to Flipkart, every platform has offered the best tools and technology to assure the growth of esports in India.
Connectivity plays an important role in esports to thrive for all a relentless effort is being put in by telecommunicators to ensure unhindered access to the internet.
Future of Esports : –
The esports industry is expected to grow by 46% CAGR by 2027 with streaming platforms generating the largest amounts of revenue. As the industry keeps growing, advertisers and investors find themselves more confident to take the stakes higher of the tournaments expecting to increase the revenue from the viewership of INR 6.5 billion by 4x.
The prize money in the competitions is increasing profoundly, garnering even more players to engage in the field.
Providing people with jobs in this sector, the esports community is expected to offer employment to over 2 lacs people by the year 2024. Due to the rise in popularity of the field, many professionals such as game developers and designers, 3D artists, and software programmers saw the rise in their demands.
Gaming companies are looking forward to capturing the unaware audience and market with the inclusion of innovative games in the system.
