The unique viewer’s forecast has been split into eight key regions. Which include North America, Latin America, West Europe, Central, and East Europe, the Far East and China, the Indian sub-continent, the Rest of Asia Pacific, and Africa & Middle East. The region which contributes the biggest is the Far East and China. Also, We will know about Indian Esports Viewership.
Meanwhile, eSports arrived in the Indian sub-continent later than other western countries and also regions in Asia like China. However, it has been announced as a medal event in the 2022 Asian Games, which is a testimony to its rapid growth in this part of the world.
Indian Esports Viewership
So, In new research, the UK-based Juniper Research has forecasted that unique viewers of eSports (competitive playing of video games) and Let’s Plays content (tutorials and talk-throughs of game content) will reach 858 million by 2022, up from 630 million this year with the Indian sub-continent to being a minority contributor.
U Cypher promoted the first multi-gaming platform on TV for eSports competitions in India. It comes under U Sport. USports is founded by media tycoon turned angel investor Ronnie Screwvala and his partner Supratik Sen.
It’s a platform for talented gamers that helps them achieve their maximum potential as well as shape their careers in e-Sports leagues.
Esports on the rise:-
The eSports audience size in 2018 stood at a considerable 173 million frequent viewers, on top of 222 million occasional viewers. If these figures were not impressive enough, they are forecast to grow even further in the next few years. The enthusiasts are spread across the world, but the Asia Pacific region seems to be a particular hotspot for eSports. In the United States, meanwhile, some 9.2 per cent of internet users in 2019 watched eSports. This figure will be expected to rise to 15.5 per cent by 2023.
The eSports market has boomed in recent years with more and more viewers tuning in to watch their favourite games being played by some of the best gamers in the world. Players can compete against each other, individually or in teams, in multiplayer video game tournaments across the world. According to a 2019 report, eSports viewers on Twitch are estimated to represent 51 per cent of total eSports viewers in 2023, down from 74 per cent compared in 2018.
Esports Viewership of ESL:-
The ESL Pro League is a professional eSports league in which some of the best gamers in the world fight it out in the popular esport. Esport like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. In March 2020, some 146 thousand viewers tuned in to the first day of the ESL Pro League. It’s an increase of 27 per cent on the previous year’s figures. This increase is no doubt partially due to the fact that the world was staying at home. And People are using the internet more frequently as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Which some of the best gamers in the world fight it out in the popular video game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. In March 2020, arecord 1.4 million hourswere watched on the second day of the competition.
Indian Expert on Indian Esports Viewership:-
One esports expert in India said that “The combined eSports and gaming market is estimated to be Rs 390 billion with more than 2,000 teams consistently participating in tournaments across India and abroad with over 500 million players worldwide. The industry has a number of major tournaments throughout the year with viewership in the tens of millions.
Right now, According to all reports, we can say that, in India, something between 50-60 million viewership right now. It’s increased because of Pubg. After Pubg, Many streamers make a situation and even pubg do the best Marketing till yet in India of esports.
Will pubg (bgmi) unban soon?
Actually, we can’t say anything yet on Unban. But yes, Pubg Mobile Korean Official company gave a statement on its Instagram account that they break the partnership with Tencent for India. Now, Pubgm Korea will have official rights to launch the game in India and collect data from Indian players.
But govt banned the new game BGMI India as well because one Chinese company has some stack in its parent company. Hopefully now Krafton will launch the Indian game without a partnership with a Chinese company.
We can see that the esports industry has huge potential. And in the future, Indian viewership of esports will increase rapidly.
In India, Pubg mobile was banned but Esports Industry has a huge potential for the future. But let’s see some ways to look at it.
Pessimistic: No future. Optimistic: There’s potential. Realist: Bleak/extremely niched.
Future of esports industry in India
Currently, as it stands there are 2 major stigmas involved with Video games.
The first one is many people grab your place with cheat and hacks in the esports industry and officials are trying hard to stop it, but only in some games. And the second one is it won’t give you a degree and it’s not like physical sports.
Let’s talk about pubg mobile, in one week (20-27 Aug. 2021), Pubg mobile (BGMI India) banned more than 1.4 million devices and 2.6 million accounts. So, it’s great to see that some Esports are working hard to stop hacks and cheating.
But I’d like to take a positive outlook on it. I believe it’s a matter of time and a matter of the right individuals getting together to form something that is promoted as a niche ground root movement before going into commercial whoring.
Esports today can be a marketing tool to the same audience Snapchat caters to with one crucial difference. The esports audience is not ephemeral and has much higher retention numbers.
Celtz won PMPL SA and suddenly everyone appreciates them because it was an underdog team in this tournament. Then, India and Asia come on the esports map. After it, we have more expectations from our Indian teams that they perform well in PMWL and they did. Team Orange Rocks come 2nd position and we didn’t get a trophy from only 7 points. But this performance of OR gave us new hope that we can be an esports player. and can win a trophy for our country.
Also, you can know about the future of the world’s Esports industry. CLICK HERE to read.
For the future of esports industry in India, we need to require these things:
A mass following:
It comes from acceptance already in place. We require a central place for people to hang out and discuss. Connecting gamers of India together is done across different games but there’s no central medium that caters to them alone. Most of them are just ad-based biased outlets of video games.
A mass sponsorship or infusion of funds: We are going to fast to grab these opportunities for sponsorships. Many communities have foreign sponsorships like Tsm, 8bit, Godlike, celtz, Fnatic, etc.
This requires support by companies that actually believe in the idea that the youth of today have purchasing power and need the right message and medium to be catered to. So think Redbull, think Razer/Steelseries gear, and don’t think about biscuits.
The right governance:
One that doesn’t have criminals like the IGC guys lowballing dealing and cheating Indian audiences. This has to be by gamers, for gamers, and gamers. We can’t have someone who sat in an FMCG for 20 years ever try to understand the mindset of a gamer. And gamers are great guys who might not do well in school and might not be ramp walk models but have the dedication to build their IQ.
and also the Indian govt. notice that they will search for it and talk with gamers and then make a govt. gaming association and which works for the esports Industry.
The right vision:
What does esports stand for? Competition at the highest level where caste, creed, financial status, religion, body type, and physical attributes (height/weight/skin colour) don’t matter. Do you have what it takes mentally and mechanically to compete using your mind? That’s what eSports is about.
It is the purest form of competition. Very akin to Chess btw but Chess is far less mechanically demanding.
So, If you wanna be an esports player, you need to grind yourself and have a good team with good synergies.
Be Pro In Every Situation So you can be felt proud.
Esports are on the rise worldwide and the rise has been exponential over the past few years. Let me start with an example of one particular game that I have been playing so many times now, Pubg Mobile (PlayerUnknown Battlefield). I started playing Pubg Mobile back in 2018 end, right from the last year of college. I have followed many international tournaments and watched all the big teams play.
To name a few, big tournaments like Pubg Mobile Club Open, Pubg Mobile World League, Pubg Mobile PL, and many tournaments of pubg mobile and the prize money used to be around $850K and $1 million/country in a single tournament.
Esport Set-Up
In 2020, Pubg Mobile Officials announced the launch of a new version(New Era) for Pubg Mobile named “PubgMobile 1.0 new era” and it will be the turning point in history. And now it will be decided that all the tournaments will now have Pubg Mobile New Era. In 2020, the number of tournaments and Prize money was on the rise.
Back then participation is good but still, it has some drawbacks like some teams used hacks at the starting level and pubg failed to stop them yet. They wasted many slots of good teams. There were only a few teams from Europe and South Asia. But now the participation has increased drastically with huge participation from North America and South America with European and American teams still occupying the Top 20 positions.
Now let’s have a look at the prize money of the few tournaments held so far in 2020:
PMWL 2020 SEASON ZERO EAST – $850k million PMWL 2020 SEASON ZERO WEST – $850k million PMCO 2020 – $1 million/country PMPL SOUTH ASIA – $ 200k and the list goes on…….
and the tournament arenas now look like this:
PUBG Mobile League Arena
this
Pubg Mobile Arena
and this
Esports Arena
There are several organizations coming up that function just like sporting clubs in any other sports (such as football clubs in football). They have contracts with players, they sign and release players and sometimes they sign and relieve the whole team (it’s a team of 5-6 that plays), they have now coached to form strategies and a group of analysts working behind them to prepare the players for big matches. and mentally motivate them.
If You want to know about the future of the Indian Esports industry then CLICK HERE.
The salaries of these teams are now offering is more than what big firms and MNCs can offer. Last year 5 players of TSM (Team Solo Mid) decided to leave TSM and form their organization. TSM quickly sent out the notice that they needed a new team and the salary offered would be $10,000 per month plus tournament win bonuses. And This happened in the counter strike, but there are other games as well such as DOTA, Pubg, clash of clans, FIFA, LEAGUE OF LEGENDS, counter strike, etc where the prize money is even more massive.
Now let’s have a look at the prize money of the few tournaments held so far :
Counter-Strike- $10.22 Million
Fortnite – approx $7 Million
DOTA2- $ 5.22 Million
Rainbow 6- Approx $4 Millionand so on…….
And now let’s compare the prize pool of esports with traditional sports:
After the ban on Chinese esports games (Pubg Mobile in 2021, Free Fire & BGMI in 2022) the growth of the esports industry in India is increasing slowly. But hopefully, soon we can see a new BGMI game for the Indian market only without any interface from a Chinese company.
The esports industry has grown faster than anyone could have predicted, the future is bright and so my friends –
THE GAME HAS JUST BEGUN.
Be Pro In This Industry and Grab Big Opportunities.
