Is Competitive Esports Disappearing?

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A talk about competitive esports and the value of the scene.

Editor / Videographer: Kevin
Thumbnail Artist: Kevin

#esports #competitivegaming #devinnash

[Brian_F]

One day fighting games will be mentioned in these conversations lol. Any decade now...

[TangentMoon]

It's too complicated for a casual to follow esports. I like watching games but I've not been a hardcore viewer for a long time. I feel like I need to invest so much time just to follow the matches, when/where events are happening, etc. This is why one of my favorite esports to watch was Starcraft 2, the GSL was on everyday, same time same place, clear formats, clear stakes, and it didn't have hours of ads and "analysis" (i.e. padding).

Compare this to a casual sports fan who can just drop in and watch the Super Bowl, World Cup, Tennis Grand Slams, Olympics etc. well defined events that happen at consistent times year after year.

[Sourheart]

When people say "gaming is dead" what they really mean is there's no central game pulling EVERYONE to play it. Gaming is fractured, everyone plays their favorite live-service and maybe a few single player games.

[SELS]

Esports will always have relevancy but it does target a very small portion of the gaming audience. It still blows me away that we finally got Marvel vs Capcom 2 back, but look how many people are streaming it. Numbers were huge during the pandemic, and I think that speaks for itself. The truth is your average player/viewer is likely dealing with a 40 hour work week, social obligations, etc. The quantity and complexity of competitive games is lost on folks who don't have the time to learn their nuances. It's so much easier to keep track of the sportsball games because they've spanned decades and the rules have become common knowledge. If you want the same treatment for competitve gaming then we need to come up with a game that can stand for decades. I don't think we'll see anything like that until we've reached full immersion VR.

[hoxyheart]

Says this when league is literally breaking records.

[carlosb.]

I think it's ingenious to say that something is "better than it's even been " while the customers/Viewers have only been decreasing.
-example: "star wars is better than it's ever been CGI in the movies is out of this world with higher than ever budgets"
-yeah but people aren't watching it.

[FlyingHigh]

There's too high of a initial cost/time investment to get people involved in to watching competitive esports.
Then there's also patches that change the game on a consistent basis.

[kimberly]

Because all these games wanted to go franchise mode. Of course we stop caring when its weekly matches.

[serehero]

What does this mean then? If viewers are leaving how does the competitive community continue to grow then? Views are a sign of interest and health. If views are declining, how can you say the scene is growing? Aren't avg views a better metric than the number of games available? That wasn't made clear.

[cenpaiz]

League esports has gained viewers each year, no ?

[logman]

Sadly most people dont like playing games competitively cause it removes the fun and alot of times watch the games is the same strategies over and over so it gets boring fast

[Anonymous]

Viewship means casuals don’t care, looks like, League, Fortnite, Call of Duty and SF6 are the only ones people watch.

[lordlynkz]

It can come back.. it needs to compete with short form content since that is eating everyone's attention.

[Popstylez]

Competitive gaming’s peak has come and gone. If it was going to get bigger, or stay big, the fluctuation wouldn’t be noticeable. The fact is, gaming is for children and young adults. If you’re 30 and gaming competitively and bring in less than 20, 000 a year, you’re wasting your life

[LoLoA]

U cant say its better than ever when u just established tht its not on viewer count being so low. its clearly not😅

[lampylamplive]

I only know about League. But the esport got boring. Still like the game. But league high level seeing the same champs got boring.