This article was written by Nick Tol and was originally published on the website of De Telegraaf. Photo credits: Amaury Miller
It is an ultramodern and boundless universe, in which many hundreds of millions of euros are involved each year. Esports is incredibly popular among young people and leading companies such as Google and Microsoft are pumping money into it. How does this world of video games work? And is it realistic that this digital form of competition will also be added to the Olympic agenda?
Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), recently said that his organisation is strongly considering welcoming esports at the Olympic Games in the future. But there are quite a few snags. People like Bach are racking their brains about this", says Dirk Tuip, 28-time handball international and currently co-owner of H20 Esports Campus, the largest esports stadium in the Benelux. If the IOC does nothing, the Games will soon be irrelevant to the youth. Of course, they realize that themselves. They know they have to get the gaming world into their traditional structure in some way. You can bet that behind the scenes there is a lot of fighting going on between the big powers; from the IOC and sponsors to media conglomerates and game publishers. I predict that within ten years you can win Olympic gold even as an athlete."
Ronaldo or Messi
Esports is quite a broad term. It can be simply described as the competitive playing of digital video games. It is especially popular among young people and is expected to grow even more in the years to come. In 2020, nearly a billion dollars were spent in the world of esports, with just under 500 million viewers in total, 223 million of whom were frequent spectators. In comparison, in 2023, the turnover is expected to be around 1.6 billion dollars and there will be 646 million viewers, 295 million of them frequent. That is what the models of the German data company Statista show.
In addition to the many online viewers, there were 15,000 frenzied people in the stadium, while the participants were playing on a large stage!
Many matches are played and watched online via digital platforms such as Twitch and YouTube. But before the coronavirus broke out, large stadiums were also regularly sold out. I remember going to my first esports match a few years ago," says Tuip, a three-time Dutch handball champion. The world championship of the popular shooting game Counter-Strike was being held in Cologne. I didn't care much for gaming and esports back then, but what I saw there took me by surprise. In addition to the many online viewers, there were 15,000 ecstatic people in the stadium, while the participants were playing on a large stage. Later, I was at a game fair in the same Cologne and there were 150,000 people there every day. Where football fans like to have a shirt of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, jerseys of great esports players were sold there for 95 euros each. Not to mention the many well-attended autograph sessions. Fascinating."
World players
The Netherlands also has a very successful and world-famous esports organisation: Team Liquid. This team has one million followers on Instagram and consists of ninety professional contract players from the Netherlands and abroad. Each athlete is specialised in his or her own video game: from League of Legends and Fortnite to Counter-Strike and Dota 2. The Dutch formation rakes in many millions of dollars in prize money every year and is now worth more than 300 million dollars, according to research by the American business magazine Forbes. In Toronto I spoke to a sports marketer who made it big with the Maple Leafs, a traditional ice hockey team worth one and a half billion dollars," Tuip says. They also have an esports team and expect it to be worth more than the traditional Maple Leafs. You can't imagine that.
Electronics company Sony recently conducted a survey among primary school pupils in Japan, asking them about their favourite jobs in the future. The results spoke volumes. YouTuber was number one, professional sportsman was number two and video game developer was number three. Due to the effects of the corona pandemic, online numbers in particular have exploded. "Every day there are hundreds of games that we don't even know about," says Tuip. "Big players like Amazon, Microsoft and Google don't invest a lot of money in this world for nothing."
Top-class sport or not?
The age at which esports players break through is often between 16 and 20 years. There is a clear distinction between esports and playing video games as a hobby. It's often compared to the difference between playing football on a square and being under contract to a professional club. But the main question is: to what extent can esports be compared to top-class sports? Tuip laughs: ,,I grew up with traditional top-class sport, so I struggled with this question myself. But there is serious competition, a lot of prize money is distributed, matches are decided on details and the pros make four to six hits a second. Apart from that, of course, there is a lot of training and attention to the peripheral issues. The big teams even employ cooks, analysts and psychologists. In those respects, esports is certainly similar to top-class sport. Compare it to darts. In that sport, you can't last in the top as a pub player either.
The first giant step has already been taken: at the prestigious Asian Games in 2022 in Hangzhou, China, esports will be on the programme for the first time. It's only a matter of time before the Olympic Games will follow", Tuip thinks. The advance of esports is unstoppable. And for the IOC it is the ideal way to keep the youth interested.