Despite its still relatively young age, having only really been around for the past two decades as a whole but in its current form for half of that time, and in that time, it has seen tremendous growth where viewership numbers now rival that of traditional sporting events and even surpass them. Whilst players and viewers have typically been on the younger side with teen males being the primary audience too, there has since been a change – the introduction of betting on big events as players discover what is the current Ladbrokes sign up code to get the best offers on wagering too, and the past two years in particular with esports being a big alternative for the cancellation and postponement period throughout 2020 and 2021.
Games such as Counter-Strike have managed to succeed in the esports space by being some of the longer standing games in the market – the original competitive version released way back in the early 2000’s and managed to succeed as a competitive game right through to the release of the latest version of the game in 2012 – the interim also saw a second version of the game that split the audience which launched in 2004, but the launch of Global Offensive combined the two game audiences and brought a huge audience with it, also being the game responsible for the launch of the betting market in esports too.
It’s also important to note the huge impact that Riot Games and its two big IPS in League of Legends and Valorant have had on the esports environment too – Riot Games were the first company to heavily invest into broadcasting and step-up production following the games launch in 2011, and whilst it took some time to get to the quality it’s at now it has helped set itself apart. The launch of Valorant in 2020 cemented this further, as a game that offered direct competition to some other big names in the market, and the production along with the game design is what helped it set itself apart.
With viewership remaining free through platforms such as Twitch, and many of the big games being free to play too, there are few barriers to prevent players from tuning in and taking part, and has been a huge part of the reason esports has been able to not only succeed but to also thrive – as it has also started to emerge and grow in the mobile space, numbers are expected to only grow as forecasts suggest a huge future for the world of esports, and with nods that it could also be included in the Olympics in the future, more eyes than ever could be on esports.
