Esports are growing - Could this impact soccer?
Soccer is the world’s most watched and played sport. It beats other globally popular disciplines like rugby, cricket, tennis, and basketball by quite a wide margin. There are more than 3.5 billion soccer fans in the world, compared to 2.5 billion for cricket, 2 billion for field hockey, and 1 billion for tennis.
You would think, therefore, that the sport’s officials, club owners, and players would feel pretty comfortable in their position as the world’s dominant sport. Yet, that is far from the case.
The world is changing, and it’s changing fast. Technology has disrupted just about every industry and every area of our lives over the last few decades. Entire sectors have been created and others destroyed at the hands of computers, smartphones, and the internet.
Sport is not immune to this. Technology has influenced sport in quite a number of ways, including making it easier to watch games from afar, improving the way that games are officiated, and even changing the way fans can buy and use their tickets to see a game in person. Another way that technology is changing sport is through esports - competitive video game competitions that use computers and consoles as their pitch instead of a big field of grass.
An Explosion in Growth
20 years ago, few people would have known what esports were, never mind actually having watched some games. Fast forward to today, and you’ll find more than half a billion esports viewers around the world. That makes it more popular than American football, basketball, golf, and baseball.
There has been a slowing of growth in esports over the last year or so, but it continues to climb upwards. In fact, Newzoo reports that the number of people following esports will achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% between 2020 and 2025.
A Lot of Variety
Part of this growth is because of just how many different esports options there are out there for fans to watch and follow. This includes video games that are recreations of real-life sports, most notably soccer, Formula 1, and basketball, but it also includes games that are complete works of fiction, such as League of Legends and Fortnite.
Some traditional sports have also blurred the lines with the esports world and the most notable of these is poker. While this popular card game has been appearing on our television screens since at least the 1970s, poker content has exploded online in recent years as more people have discovered it. As a result, many have turned to platforms like Twitch and YouTube to watch live poker tournaments.
Chess is another traditional sport that has exploded in popularity at the hands of esports streaming platforms, helping to encourage more people to get into playing.
Getting in on the Action
While it may seem like a very left-field decision, many traditional soccer clubs are beginning to embrace esports, taking part in FIFAe competitions, setting up teams to compete in other games, and even buying or partnering with established esports teams.
You might think that it'd be the small teams in lower leagues that would be getting in on the esports action, but that’s far from the case. Big names like RB Leipzig and Manchester City have been investing in these technological tournaments.
A Threat to Soccer?
Given that soccer is followed by seven times as many people as esports, you may struggle to see the latter as a threat. Yet, if you dig down into the data a little more closely, the strategies of teams like City and Leipzig begin to make more sense.
Like most other traditional sports, football has an ageing population. In England, the percentage of people describing themselves as an “avid fan” of soccer was higher in people aged 45 or over, compared to those aged 18-44.
In contrast, the average age of an esports fan is 26. Therefore, with declining interest in their existing products amongst younger people, soccer clubs are turning to esports as a way to attract new generations of fans.
That said, it’s hard to say that esports are a direct threat to soccer. After all, the size difference between their fanbases is huge and it will be difficult for esports to match the beautiful game. Instead, they’re more likely to co-exist, with them both helping to grow an interest in the other.