Throughout the past year many different sporting events have fallen on some difficult times given the temporary restrictions placed on many, but there had been a huge amount of success found for the growing world of esports as events were able to continue both online and offline. As the bigger games continue to grow and newer entries make their way onto the market too, 2021 is looking to be a great year overall for esports, and with the growth of esports betting here too, a much wider audience is making the transition across too. So where have the biggest opportunities been found so far?
Valorant leading the charge for FPS – Whilst Counter-Strike has been leading the way in the esports market for first-person shooters for the better part of two decades, the newest arrival from Riot Games is certainly looking to change up the market and has already been extremely successful at doing so. The tournament routine currently is limited to regional play as international events are still a bit rocky even in e sports, but with the end of the year shaping up to change things and become more open for international events too. Viewer numbers are going up, and there has been a huge transition from professional players from one game to another as Valorant is shaping up to be one of the premiere esports.
(Image from sportsvideo.org)
A rise for traditional sporting too – To cater to a more casual audience, more familiar gaming titles have had to become available in order to enable success – names like FIFA and NBA2K have managed to gain a growing audience throughout the past year and look to continue growing moving forward too. Whilst perhaps never on the same level as some of the biggest titles in the world, they are covering some ground in order to help more traditional sporting fans make the transition to esports. With big support from the organisations and franchises that make up the market too, it allows for this space to get much bigger.
Successes for the established names too – The bigger names in esports with the likes of League of Legends and Counter-Strike are still very much chugging along at their own strong pace too, recent events for LoL have pulled in the big viewer numbers and upcoming offline events for Counter-Strike are set to move forward too. These online games in particular have been able to show that despite a global pandemic, there’s little to stop the successes being found in the market overall.
There are certainly still some difficulties being seen in the space, but it does seem as if offline and international events are back on their way up as planning is very much on the way, and as a growing number of more casual viewers are making the leap too there are plenty of opportunities for newer and existing fans alike.
