Time for a little trivia. What is the world’s fastest-growing sport? (Hint: The answer might surprise you.)
If you guessed esports, high-score to you.
Not only are there an estimated 3.24 billion gamers worldwide, but more and more gaming enthusiasts are simply logging into Twitch just to kick back in their gamer chair and watch their favorite gamer (akin to kicking back in a recliner to watch your favorite team play on ESPN). Thanks to these audiences, gamers streaming their gameplay have managed to turn their gaming hobby into a lucrative business.
The growth of the e-gaming industry has been rapid and is destined to continue to grow at impressive rates. Professional gamers are coming home with big tournament wins, brands are sponsoring some of the best talents, and the sport is opening up opportunities for business-minded gamers too.
Tournament wins The highest-earning professional gamers in the U.S.
Akin to professional athletes, competitive gaming attracts the top talent of the gaming world.
Here are the top 25 highest-earning gamers by tournament winnings in the United States:
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Provided by Solitaired.com]
The average age across the top 25 is 25, ranging from the three youngest players – Shane “EpikWhale” Cotton (#6), Rocco “Saf” Morales (#11), and Hayden “Elevate” Krueger (#18) – are just 18, while the oldest is 34 – Clinton “Fear” Loomis (#4).
While not one woman appears in the top 25, in 2020 women accounted for 36% of U.S. esports viewers. Women professional gamers are paving their way. Here are the top 10 highest earnings in the U.S.:
Provided by Solitaired.com]
The #1 highest-earning female gamer, Katherine “Mystik” Gunn, is the only woman to make six figures.
Entrepreneurial gamers: In it to win it
The professional path is one for the dedicated, determined, and ultra-competitive — and it’s short-lived. With the average competitive career of an esports star lasting four to five years, 25 is also the age at which most pros “retire.” But stepping away from competitive play doesn’t mean you have to quit the game.
Another opportunity for generating revenue is via entertainment or content creation by live-streaming gameplay to fans.
U.S. gaming audiences rose from 12% to 19% in 2020 and are expected to rise a total of 129% reaching 48 million viewers between 2020 and 2024. This presents an abundance of opportunities to gamers who realize what value these massive audiences are for businesses and brands.
Platforms like Twitch and YouTube are the most popular for connecting with the largest audiences. From there the options to bring in different paid opportunities expand, there are affiliate programs, partner programs, paid subscriptions, sponsorships, brand influencers, ads, merchandise, and more. For the marketing-savvy influencer, the payoff can be huge.
Take “Ninja,” one of the world’s highest-earning gamers, who didn’t even qualify for Fortnite’s first World Cup. While the #1 highest-earner, “Bugha”, scored that $3-million prize, Ninja has managed to bring in as much as $25 million through live-streaming to his 16.5 million Twitch followers. If you do decide to stream, you will likely want to host your own game server to protect yourself from streamsnipers, which is an issue that many streamers have encountered in recent years. For example, using automatic clustering for multiple ARK servers can help to protect your stream when playing the ARK series of games, which has a gained a huge following since the first edition was released in 2015.
Opportunities abound for gaming enthusiasts
Thanks to technology’s rapid expansion since the early 2000s, gaming has become a mainstay in many households. With just a device and a connection, the access to play is at a gamer’s fingertips. If you know How to stream on Twitch then you can earn from that platform and come into eyes of lot of people.
The vast communities of gamers have helped the global esports market expand. Today’s estimated value is $1.08B and it is expected to reach $1.62B by 2024. If gaming is your passion, you may be drawn to the idea of making it your career, and why not? Gaming influencers have the opportunity to generate million-dollar incomes and the size of this market presents opportunities for hobbyists and pro-aspiring alike.