For several years the fever of electronic sports and their leagues has become hot, and video game players from behind their desks, in addition to fighting to place the championship crown on their head, have created a considerable economic market. Professional gamers from various points of the world gather virtually and form professional teams and line up in large competitions and festivals. At the same time numerous fans and followers from across the world sit to watch this competition. What is interesting is that all these events take place not in the real world, but in a virtual and online environment.
But what logic does the economy of these sports games follow? With a brief look we find that in the course of these competitions huge costs are moved. In these competitions players, teams and various brands of virtual games obtain good money, and the platforms and organizers of these events are also not an exception to this. "The market report of electronic sports and games[1]" has examined the economy of virtual games and electronic sports from various dimensions and angles and has addressed analyzing its various aspects. This report contains practical data and statistics about the economy, leading countries, top games, cash prizes, leading teams and leagues and so on of electronic sports and games, which are stated in the following.
The economic ecosystem of electronic sports
The video game industry has been examined in three sub-branches: "electronic sports", "games" and "streams". In the electronic sports part, through sponsors, intellectual property, the cash prize of competitions and festivals and related goods, the possibility of earning income exists. In the games section too, the physical sale of games, hardware and consoles and also the cost of registration and making an account are the main methods of revenue generation. Also in game streams, which is possible in both online and offline states, the number of video views, advertising, following channels, fans' financial help, related goods and markets and sponsors have formed the economic cycle.
The popularity of electronic sports in Asian countries
Examination of the cash prizes of electronic sports competitions by the countries that won them shows that China, by obtaining 18.8 percent of all prizes, stands in first place by a margin. The United States of America, with 12.5 percent, is in second place and third place with 5.1 percent belongs to Brazil. The presence of Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia in the high ranks of the table of distribution of electronic sports cash prizes reports the high share of Asian countries of the electronic sports market. Among European countries too, Russia with 4.9 percent, Denmark with 2.7 percent and England with 2.9 percent of all prizes are in the lead.
Figure 1. Top countries in the field of electronic sports competitions in 2022 by the amount of cash prize obtained
Record-holding games in receiving cash prizes from electronic sports competitions
The game "Dota2" up to 2023 has received 289 million dollars in cash prizes and has taken the title of the top video game based on the greatest cash prize obtained in electronic games competitions. CS:GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) with 138 million dollars is in second place and the popular game Fortnite (Fortnite) with 137 million dollars is in third rank. Also PUBG (PUBG) is the name of another familiar game of this list which with 54 million dollars and after LOL (League of Legends) is in fifth place.
Figure 2. Top video games based on the amount of cash prize obtained in electronic sports competitions to date
Examination of the top video games based on the greatest amount of cash prize obtained in 2022 indicates the lead of the game Arena of Valor (Land of Valor); this game in 2022 allocated 17.83 million dollars from electronic sports competitions to itself. The mobile version of the game PUBG (PUBG) with 14.33 million dollars is in second place and the game LOL (League of Legends: Wild Rift) with 12.31 million dollars is in third rank.
Figure 3. Top video games based on cash prize obtained in 2022
The most valuable electronic sports teams
Today electronic sports teams have a structure and hierarchy beyond imagination. They, beyond cyberspace and the world of games, have been able to build an identity for themselves and obtain high value. A look at the list of the most valuable electronic sports teams shows that the team "FaZe Clan" with the notable value of 700 million dollars in 2022 is the most valuable team in the world of electronic sports. This is while the team "FaZe Clan" in 2020 had a value of 300 million dollars and only over the course of two years its value has more than doubled. The story of the formation of most electronic sports teams is also not without interest; for example "FaZe Clan" were at first a three-person team that began their work with the game "Call of Duty" in 2010; this team now claims that as the most popular electronic sports team it has more than 350 million audience. The team "TSM" with the 550 million dollar value it had in 2022 is in second place and the team "100 Thieves" with 450 million dollars stands in third rank. Also a comparison of the amount of growth of the value of electronic sports teams in the years 2020 to 2022 indicates the unchallenged lead of the team "FaZe Clan".
Figure 4. Comparison of the value of the most valuable electronic sports teams in the years 2020 and 2022
The revenue of game companies
In 2022, in an ambitious move, Microsoft announced that it had acquired Activision Blizzard for 68.9 billion dollars. This move by Microsoft shocked followers and specialists in the esports field, because with this deal Microsoft made itself the second-highest-earning company in these competitions. Before this, in 2021, Microsoft, with more than 13 billion dollars in revenue, ranked fifth among companies in the video game sector. Activision Blizzard, too, before this deal, ranked seventh with about 8 billion dollars. But after the acquisition of this company, Microsoft's revenue reached more than 22 billion dollars. The unassailable company Tencent, with more than 32 billion dollars in revenue in 2021, holds first place by a wide margin. Third place, with 18 billion dollars in revenue in 2021, belongs to Japan's long-established Sony.
Figure 5. Game companies' revenue in 2021
Esports broadcasting platforms
Unlike sports competitions—especially football—whose viewing is often enjoyable for audiences in live form, videos related to esports are offered both live and non-live. The Twitch platform, which is the main live-streaming platform for these competitions, has the largest audience. Alongside Twitch, Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming also cover live broadcasts of these competitions for interested audiences. In terms of live-viewing audiences for esports competitions, Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and Facebook Gaming have the largest audiences, in that order. Statistics show that esports audiences, unlike those of sports competitions, do not insist on following videos of these contests necessarily live. As a result, YouTube, with offline videos of these competitions, has been able to bring a large number of viewers along with it. Overall, in the first three months of 2022, the Twitch platform had 6.13 billion hours of views related to live watching of these competitions and earned a high economic profit. YouTube and YouTube Gaming also had 1.13 billion hours of views in this period.
Figure 6. Views of esports competition videos
From Ninja to Ibai and Tfue; streamers with the most followers
Overall, the most-viewed videos on the YouTube platform are videos that deal with the gaming industry. As noted, this platform is in close competition with Twitch in terms of the number of audiences interested in video games. But which channels in this field do audiences follow more? Among YouTubers and Twitch streamers, the Ninja channel, with 18.3 million followers, is the most-viewed esports channel; interestingly, this streamer is himself a super-professional gamer and until 2023 stood at the top of all Twitch channels in number of followers. If you are a fan and follower of esports competitions, it is impossible that you have not heard the name of Auronplay, a well-known YouTuber in this field. Spanish Auronplay, with 13.3 million followers, takes second place among streamers in this field. Also Rubius, the Norwegian-Spanish creator who has long kept his place among the top fifty YouTubers, with 12.4 million followers, stands in third place by a small margin.
Figure 7. Top streamers by number of followers in 2021
Streamers' sources of revenue on Twitch
According to the statistics, 80 percent of Twitch platform revenue is obtained through channels being followed by fans. Unlike the YouTube platform, which earns most of its revenue from advertising, the Twitch platform obtains only 14 percent of its revenue from advertising. In addition to these two methods, 4 percent of this platform's streamers' revenue is supplied through fans' financial contributions.
Figure 8. Revenue sources of Twitch's top streamers (2021)
Revenue of Twitch platform streamers
The revenue of the top 10 Twitch platform streamers from August 2019 to October 2021 has been calculated at about 50 million dollars. Of course this revenue is solely the income from the number of followers, advertising, and fans' financial contributions, which is treated as net revenue from the Twitch platform. As a result this amount does not include personal sponsors, related merchandise, or fans' contributions outside this platform's framework, and so on.
But a popular internet ensemble in which a community of professional voice actors play Dungeons & Dragons, namely CriticalRole , is the top streamer by revenue among Twitch platform streamers, having earned 9.26 million dollars through this platform from August 2019 to October 2021. After that, the Canadian streamer xQc, who was himself once a professional Overwatch player, with 8.45 million dollars in revenue, takes second place by a small margin. Third place, with 5.84 million dollars, also belongs to the streamer summit1g, who was once a professional Counter-Strike player in esports competitions.
Figure 9. Twitch streamers' revenue from August 2019 to October 2021
Final word
It seems that today's large, spectacular, and popular leagues and competitions, from football to volleyball and basketball and so on, have found a powerful rival named esports, and inevitably they must cede part of the attention of their spectators and followers to this rival. In this situation, champions no longer compete on the green pitch or in fields of physical contest, but from inside their rooms and from behind their computers and phones and tablets, and audiences, too, follow these exciting and gripping contests in the same way. But more important than these changes and transformations is the powerful economic market and the revenue that esports competitions and festivals have brought with them. A market that many countries have long been planning to have a share of. In view of the conditions mentioned, and given the reception of video games among the people of our country, it seems that with planning and appropriate scientific measures a good income can be obtained from the electronic games field.
[1] ESPORTS & GAMING MARKET REPORT
Machine-translated from Persian by Namafar; the Persian original is authoritative. Read the original in Persian