E-sports is a powerful emerging industry. Not only for competitive gamers, but as a breeding ground for new technology, and a new form of global entertainment. Defined simply as “multiplayer games played competitively for spectators by professional gamers”, the industry is booming.
With an audience of 474 million this year, and by 2024 an expected 577.2 million viewers of e-sports worldwide, the sector has already attracted a huge and growing following.
Now worth an estimated $1.08bn, up 50% on last year, and with tournament prize pools in the millions, e-sports are a colossal opportunity for all those involved in the burgeoning sector.
However, despite being virtual, there is a growing need for physical spaces to host competitions on a much more regular basis. This is the opportunity for the property sector.
As we re-imagine our high streets and urban spaces following the pandemic, could e-sports provide a dynamic and exciting new occupier for the now empty offices, department stores, and shopping centres?
E-sports is now more than just competitive gaming, it is a community, a culture, and a promising area for investment. Much in the same way that traditional sporting teams and venues have cemented themselves within our communities and cultures, e-sports promises to become a real hub of community and something which will draw people into city centres again.
With the University of Warwick regularly ranked as the ‘top e-sports university in the UK’, and an investment of £275,000 for the development of a new e-sports centre at the heart of the campus, the West Midlands is already paving the way to be a hub for the industry.
Building on this momentum, the region’s property sector should explore how we can support this burgeoning opportunity to make the Midlands the e-sports capital of the UK.
The educational case for e-sports is also a key area which the region should capitalise on. While the applicability of using video games as a teaching aide is still hotly debated, the benefits of e-sports in education are much more obvious given the commonalities it shares with traditional sports. But rather than serving as a replacement, e-sports fills a specific niche and has the potential to engage an entirely different section of the global student body. For context, a survey of 13 to 18-year-olds by gaming accessories firm HyperX found that more than half thought that gaming should be included in the school curriculum and would like to see extracurricular e-sports competitions hosted by their school or college.
Just as with physical sports, the benefits of e-sports go far beyond the surface level skills required to do well; in this case, motor skills and hand eye coordination. In an educational setting, e-sports teaches the same core principle of teamwork – you can only win as a team that’s coordinated, and can’t exclusively rely on individual talent or skill. The key difference is that because e-sports is accessible to students who are less traditionally ‘sporty’, the physical aspect of playing in a team is removed. This presents an opportunity to teach students these important lessons where they otherwise might not have the opportunity to connect with the message behind them.
It is naïve to think that e-sports are a children’s fad, or like old-fashioned gaming arcades. In the digital age this new industry presents fantastic opportunities, with significant economic and social benefits to be realised.
