Is Esports Still Dying?

Last year, we got up here and asked all of you if esports was dying…

Today, we're back to ask again.. Is it dead? Is it still dying? Or, maybe, is it coming back to life?

Edited by: Sam Gore

Music used under license from Associated Production Music LLC (”APM”).

[keithcapstick]

Other than skins, can you think of anything else you’d like to see Riot make to share revenue with teams?

[Electrocoreschlampii]

If you close your eyes, you can hear kermit speaking about esports economy

[Jumprrrr]

holy fuck i feel like i havent seen keith in years
glad to have him back

[sfersfan]

Going bigger on digital content and skins just makes so much sense. You have a unique opportunity to sell what is effectively digital merchandise, you should take much bigger advantage of it.

[Spetsnazty]

I find it odd valve is never mentioned when there esports have been the most sustainable.

[edomane]

Awesome that you marked the different points in 5:25 with different colors! Transforms the wall of text into informative and manageable bits of information that support what's being said!

[develish]

Surprised this is only about team esports. The fighting game scene has grown massively in the past year. Every tournament worldwide is breaking attendance and prize pool records. Big sponsors are coming in and supporting players both as individuals and as groups. It's crazy.

On another note, the Smite league has been running the same business model mentioned in the video for a few years now. Might be worth looking into for a potential follow up video.

[joaovmlsilva]

Remember guys, just because the NA league is as good as Oceania on the most famous games doesn't mean eSports are dying

[saigonrider]

Keith 'Deadeye' Capstick, we've missed ya dude

[Luvluvangel]

Esports will keep growing as long as there is passion from the players, not from big organizations only joining for a bag. The late 2010’s were big orgs joining esports hoping it to be the new NFL but esport will be a slow organic growth.

Examples like the Valorant Major shows that the viewer base is still growing. The fanbase for esports is mainly young teens so they may be too young to buy merch and other financial investments but i see the financial side growing overtime as the fanbase grows older overtime.

People tend to forget that when the NBA and other leagues first started that the salary’s were low and that many players were in the league as a side job. It took decades for the leagues to be as financial as it is now. Esports shouldn’t be pressured to reach similar heights so fast. It is slowly growing and will keep growing at its own pace.

[PlusP_]

If your business cannot form a one sentence answer to the question "How do you make money?", then your business is failing or its breaking the law. E-sports needs to remember that when deciding its future.

[josemartinez-krzd]

Esports are dying, proceeds to only talk about NA, like the rest of the world exist you know?

[prefontaine]

I played League off & on for years & loved the team skins after worlds, always bought them. I switched to Val, but hadn't bought a single skin since 2021. I bought the SEN bundle so fast when I saw it. I wanna see more of that. I like that my money is supporting more than just Rito's bottom line.

[wildeskompositum]

Kermit the Frog is back with another video, nice

[SomniaCE]

I still fail to see any value in large esports infrastructure for broader communities even as someone who loves watching and competing and I fail to see how these institutions can make solid revenue if they can't meaningfully monetize broadcasting. I don't give a fuck if someone good at pressing buttons can make 6-7 figures off of playing the game, I'm here for the hobby of loving video games and the joy of competing and self improvement with and against likeminded individuals. I get NOTHING from these games being viable career paths for the .00001% of players with the skill AND opportunity to join an org.

If esports really want to succeed in any capacity they'll have to convince viewers who have been used to free broadcasts/coverage for decades now to pay for said coverage and the entire industry will have to pick a small list of games to throw their full collective power behind. Spreading orgs across dozens of games of varying degrees of success or relevance is not the way esports gets off the ground. If we had maybe 6-7 titles with full industry push to get going then maybe we could get somewhere. The rest of the games that wish to have comp scenes will do so the way the vast majority of games for 20+ years made it happen. Grassroots efforts from the community itself driven by a love of the game where everyone involved knows they aren't trying to become a sponsored, salaried player.

[poppyharlow]

To be honest, there isn't much evidence to say this will change in the near future. The problem with esports the way I see it anyway, is just the fundamental business model. The reason why football or basketball or any other "traditional" sport is profitable is because of its exclusivity. You HAVE to pay for Sky to watch the Premier League, you HAVE to pay for ESPN or Fox to watch the NBA or the NFL. Obviously Piracy is a thing but for the most part, that's the reality. With esports events, you can watch it for free on Twitch or YouTube, so broadcasting revenue as an avenue has been eliminated. Merch sales are always going to be low, no one's walking around in a Twistzz jersey, they're all wearing LeBron jerseys. Really, the only reliable source of income for esports is ticket sales, which isn't sustainable at all because they only rent the stadiums, there's no FaZe Arena or Na'Vi Stadium so they lose money there too.
Additionally, investment isn't going to happen because investors are always going to see that the model is kaput and they're not making their money back, because the financial statements are always going to be in the red. Another problem is the fact that most people who watch esports are still kids. We're getting older sure, but it's still mostly minors, which means they're not getting the green light from mom and dad to leave the house for a stadium to watch their favorite team, they're just watching it on their PCs on Twitch. For that matter, I'm sure most of us would honestly prefer to stay home and watch ESL on Twitch.
The hope is that because it's still a new thing, it'll grow, but as of now, the risk is whether they'll run out of money before they're done growing big enough to break even.

[wickedalbel]

what a timing after Sprout just announced that they ceased operations as of today.

[justalott]

They can make the skins and digital content seasonal and subscription-based. That could help with generating revenue for the teams individually. 20 to 30 bucks for the digital content Bundle every couple months or so. At the end of the subscription term the digital content goes away, but can be repurchased. This can provide consistent income and an ability to gauge interest directly.
The teams get a portion of the bundle revenue of course.

[earlygameEN]

Glad to see score esports add Kermit to their roster

[lool]

Knew this would eventually come to riotgames and LoL as its one if not the most stable esports scene atm, hell it even grew when esports were "dying" which is true but LoL somehow grown from it and now its i belive the most watched esports series globally