UNITED STATES—With the esports boom showing no signs of slowing, this burgeoning industry is increasingly becoming a sector to be reckoned with. What’s more, its unique position at the intersection of legacy sports media and fandom, as well as the cutting edge technology involved, makes it a uniquely well suited prospect for ongoing success in our increasingly digital world.
But what is the present state of esports in 2023, and what major trends can we expect to see play out over the next twelve months? Let’s dive into all this and more below.
Esports Will Continue To Be the Fastest Growing Sport Globally
Esports has been the fastest growing sport in the world since its initial boom in the early months of 2020. To this end, it has even outpaced legacy international sports that are enjoying expansion into major new markets, such as T20 cricket and soccer in the form of the MLS.
It has also enjoyed more rapid growth than newer sports that have enjoyed consistent and steady development over the course of the 21st century, such as Mixed Martial Arts. This trend is further borne out by the sports betting industry, with comparison platforms such as OddsChecker citing esports as the sector with the highest and fastest growing betting volume of any sport they cover presently.
The reasons behind this impressive growth are many and varied. For one, esports found itself well positioned to benefit from the economic disruptions that stalled its rivals, effectively giving it free rein to capture market share from traditional sporting leagues. Even without this last minute surge, esports has been knocking at the door for some years.
Google searches for the term increased by 500% between 2015 and 2020, a sure signifier of the sector’s organic reach expanding. Likewise, developments in technology have made esports more accessible than ever before.
Before 2010, the cost of gaming-optimized laptops and PCs was still prohibitively high compared to today. What’s more, as mobile esports have grown in popularity, this ease of access has been compounded, especially in developing markets such as Sub-Saharan Africa, Island South-East Asia and Latin America—all regions where DFC Intelligence finds gamers are 1.5 times likelier to use their smartphones as their primary or sole gaming device.
Major New Venues Opening
As esports becomes more popular, the demand for dedicated esports venues increases parallel to the growth. Many major esports events are still run out of existing convention centers and sports arenas—such as the 2022 edition of League of Legends Worlds that sold out our very own Chase Center. But that venue, despite its flexibility, is first and foremost the home of the Golden State Warriors, and isn’t optimized for the unique format of esports.
This year we will see existing esports arenas, such as the Esports Stadium Arlington outside Dallas TX, a 100,000 square foot dedicated esports tournament center—the largest in North America—offer a full schedule for the first time. We will also witness several international esports stadiums opening their doors.
The most exciting of these is the Three Gorges Harbor Esports Stadium in Shanghai, the largest esports arena in the world, which cost around $1 billion to construct and offers capacity for 6000 gaming fans. This venue will serve as the centerpiece for future Asian Games esports contests, and may even one day play host to Olympic esport events in the region.
These first major arenas are a sign of what’s to come in the future. In Scotland for example, the waterfront of the city of Dundee will see the unveiling of a major regeneration project which is set to include a 4000 seat esports arena as the jewel in its crown, expected to open in 2025.
New Titles in the Ascendancy
One of the biggest changes to global esports we’re likely to witness in 2023 is the growing relevance of new popular games. In the mobile sector, for example, PUBG Mobile will continue its dominance, though three newer games are increasingly looking to trouble its hegemony.
The first of these is Arena of Valor, otherwise known domestically in China as Honor of Kings. This, the first major mobile-optimized MOBA, broke records last year when it offered a prize pool of $10 million for its World Cup. This is the highest single payout yet seen for a mobile esport, and points to the growing ambition of what was once a niche sub-sector of the wider industry.
Elsewhere, Garena’s Free Fire is looking to mount a more sincere challenge to PUBG Mobile by offering direct competition in the open-world battle royale space PUBG pioneered. Free Fire is already immensely popular. In 2021, it became the most downloaded Android game globally. Its Free Fire World Series Final — contested in Singapore that year — also became the most spectated single esports event in history, with a peak viewership of 5.4 million around the world.
Finally, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, the fastest growing esport across all platforms in 2022, looks set to continue to displace its rivals with its snappy short-form match take on the classic MOBA.
Rest assured, the growing relevance of mobile esports will be a significant trend across the next 12 months.
There’s also plenty of action to watch out for in the PC space. Riot Games’ VALORANT is entering its third year and is looking stronger than ever, and an expansion to its Champions Tour will ensure 2023 will be its most hotly contested yet.
Elsewhere, news that the sequel to CS:GO, Counter-Strike 2 has finally dropped, is taking the esports world by storm. This new game retains the core gameplay functionality that cemented CS:GO’s position as the world’s most popular esport, and provides crucial modernization in the form of dynamic smoke grenades, lower latency servers and a welcome lick-of-paint.
It drops at a time when analysts were increasingly pondering whether VALORANT was yet in a position to supplant CS:GO as the world’s leading tactical-FPS. As such, it remains to be seen whether a revived Counter-Strike in the form of CS2 will have what it takes to see off the challenge.
