eSports: the era of convergent entertainment

“Despite what some might think, eSports is not a niche phenomenon and cannot be considered an emerging trend since it has established itself as a mass phenomenon that generates benefits for all those involved,” said Francisco Asensi at the Virtual Reality Observatory.

The consultant Francisco Asensi has attended the Virtual Reality Observatory, which is being held on the 19th and 20th at the Digital Content Pole of Malaga organized by Medina Media with Panorama Audiovisual as a media partner, to review one of the most booming industries: eSports or the practice of video games through connected computers and whose competitions take place in large spaces such as live sporting events.

There are many eyes on this sector due to the 6 billion hours watched of eSports in 2016, according to IHS Market, Asensi has assured.

But how did it all start? For Asensi, the eSports phenomenon began to establish itself in Spain in 2010. "The "Lan Parties" such as the Campus Party or Euskal Encounter are the first breeding ground. Many of their attendees come to play online, creating clans that would be the future embryo of the clubs," he commented.

To this, we should add the enormous development of popular online games such as World of Warcraft or Counter Strike. At the same time, companies such as Fandroid (seed of the Professional Video Game League), Encom (organizer of DreamHack) and Turtle Entertainment, parent company of the Electronic Sports League (ESL) are giving a great push to this new activity.

"Despite what some might think, eSports is not a niche phenomenon and cannot be considered an emerging trend since it has established itself as a mass phenomenon that generates benefits for everyone involved."

The distribution of income in the global eSports, as Asensi highlights, would come from sponsorships (38%), advertising (22%), broadcasting rights (14%), publisher fees (17%) and merchandising (9%). By 2020, it is expected that there will be more than 286 million eSports fans worldwide, to which another 303 million casual users should be added.

In Spain, the income forecast for this year is around 678 million euros, reaching 905 in 2018 and 1,127 in 2019. In terms of audiences, it is estimated that in our country there are around 7.1 million users of electronic sports, with the total number of gamers exceeding 25 million.

Fan profile

Francisco Asensi has taken an x-ray of the profile of the eSports fan. “This is a very interesting profile from a commercial point of view since, in the case of the United States, we are faced with 70% of men between the ages of 25 and 34 (39%), full-time employees (55%), medium graduates (46%) and with salaries above $50,000 (61%).

Asensi has also analyzed the case of the Twitch platform that Amazon (owner of five video game studios) bought just a few years ago for 970 million. Today it has more than 100 million monthly users, with 10 million daily active users. Half of the users watch more than 20 hours of content per week on this platform (1.46 hours per day).
Faced with these native platforms in the eSports environment, we must not forget that the main social networks such as Twitter or Facebook are already making their first steps in this field.

In the Spanish case, the main eSports leagues such as ESL, Professional Video Game League, Playstation Plus League, SocialNAT and Game are gaining ground every day. Even traditional sports are being introduced into eSports. Clubs such as Valencia FC, Sevilla FC, Sporting de Gijón, Real Zaragoza... compete in the Virtual Football Organization (VFO) with teams of eleven against eleven playing the popular FIFA.

"In eSports there is no single official league. The reputation of one over the other wins due to the quality of the organization throughout the cycle, the level of play, or of the players as well as the level of the spectacle offered along with the volume of prizes make the difference," Asensi pointed out.

"There is also no fixed number of games. Currently, developers create games thinking about the possibility of making them competitive in order to 'eSportize' them. In this way, they achieve a strong impact on sales, extend the life of the game as a product, and diversify income...

Although anyone could organize a league, the current development of eSports is creating barriers to entry that will possibly lead to concentration,” commented this analyst in the Virtual Reality Observatory.

As for traditional media, they are also fighting to capture the attention of viewers in this new terrain. For example, Turner has created its own league (WME), ESPN is committed to broadcasting the main leagues and Disney has closed an alliance with Rior Gamet to acquire the rights to League of Legends.

As far as television is concerned, the medium is no stranger to the fact that eSports broadcasting has achieved its success online. The eLeague broadcasts achieved 18.7 views on Twitch, while on television it was barely followed by an average of 271,000 viewers between live and delayed.

Finally, Francisco Asensi has stressed that large groups are either acquiring the rights to large competitions or are launching thematic channels such as Ginx with television formats that go beyond broadcasting the competitions. In addition, large telcos such as Telefónica, Orange or Vodafone are also taking eSports very seriously with significant investments.