The 11th world eSports championship will be held next week. To understand how a relatively young industry managed to attract billions of people, you need to understand how e-sports is related to other areas of business.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference of the Russian Computer Sports Federation at the end of November, Vice President of the International Esports Federation (IESF) Magnus Jonson stressed that at the world championship, players will not fight for the prize money (small by market standards, $25,000), but for prestige. Indeed, esports has long gone beyond entertainment for young gamers, turning into a full-fledged industry: in 2018, according to PwC's 2019-2023 review of the entertainment and media industry, the total audience for eSports in the world exceeded 450 million people. Top players have long been millionaires: at the main Dota 2 World tournament in Shanghai, which ended on August 25, the prize pool was a record $34 million. Just under $30 million was raffled off at the V4 Future Sports Festival on September 18.

Earlier, on July 29, the first Fortnite championship was held, organized by the game's publisher, Epic Games Studio. The total budget of the final was more than $30 million, again it is a record for the industry.

In Moscow, too, there was a large eeports events. For example, the Dota 2 EPICENTER tournament with a prize pool of $1 million or the Blast Pro Series with $ 250,000 in prize money. At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Sport has sent a proposal to introduce optional lessons in eSports. On the background of the popularity of games, the offer sounds reasonable: according to the same PwC, in Russia in 2018, 22 million people watched eSports broadcasts. This suggests that eSports has formed into a full-fledged business industry, around which big money and serious sponsors are swirling. The thesis is confirmed by the figures of the PwC report: according to the results of last year, the global eSports market amounted to $775 million. Experts believe that in the coming years it will grow by an average of 18.3% per year and by 2023 will reach $1.8 billion.

It all started with the Rolling Stones and the red Ferrari

For the first time in history, an esports tournament was organized by Stanford students back in 1972. Viewers of the" First intergalactic tournament "for one of the first digital games —" Spacewar!"- there were about 20 people, and the prize was an annual subscription to the rolling Stones magazine. Since the 80's, video games have been gaining popularity, individual programs about them are even starting to appear on television, new games are appearing, and the audience is constantly growing. In 1997, the world's first cybertournament of Quake — Red annihilation was held, in which the winner received a red Ferrari. At the same time, the first Esports League appears.

The spread of personal computers and the Internet gives the next powerful impetus to the development of video games.

Where are the billions coming from?

Over the past year, the Russian Esports market has grown by 42% and is estimated at $12.7 million (PwC data). Experts believe that it will grow faster than the global one-by almost 20% per year — and by 2023 it will reach $31.2 million. The drivers of growth will be sales of media and event tickets, not sponsors. Currently, Russian Esports is on the 9th place in the world in terms of market volume, but PwC predicts that in the coming years it will be on the fourth place in terms of growth, behind only Japan, China and the UK.

The organizers of Major Championships are often game developers, mostly Dota. Each of them has its own championships with a multi-million audience around the world, huge prize money and a large number of sponsors. By the way, there is already quite serious competition among tournament organizers for the latter. Even the atmosphere in profile chats and communities is taken into account, because all this affects the tone of the advertiser's perception and brand.

According to the PwC report, thanks to the rapid growth of advertising, sponsorship and media, global eSports revenues will reach $ 1.8 billion in 2023. the main source of industry revenue is now revenue from sponsors (36%), followed by sales of media products (21%). By the way, according to data of the analytical agency Nielsen Sports, in 2019 the number of sponsorship deals in the esports industry was 1,173 — 60% more than 5 years ago. The remaining funds are revenue from advertising on streaming platforms and ticket sales (virtual and real) for tournaments.