Why do I watch other people play video games?
Disclaimer: The arguments presented in this article are personal, and some might be debatable. Feedback is highly appreciated.
I was in my hostel room when my friend came to meet me. He saw me watching Tarik’s stream on Twitch. (Tarik Celik is a professional CS:GO player for the team Evil Geniuses. He is also a famous streamer and YouTuber within the counter-strike community. He(with his former team) won the first Major for the North American region and has quite the celebrity appeal within the community). Coming back to my friend, He asked me what kind of entertainment do I get watching this. I replied that he is a very skilled player and I like the way he plays the game. He replied by saying that how could anyone enjoy watching it, “It’s not like you are playing the game.” he added. I wrote this to answer THE question.
Now that none of you are interested, we are ready to dive into this!
Some numbers because that’s what people like
While you may think people watching video-games are stupid, turns out there are a lot more of those stupid people, probably more than you think.
The most-watched esports tournament in 2019 was Worlds(World Championship), organised by Riot Games for their game League of Legends(LoL). The peak viewership for the event was 40 lakh with 10 lakh people watching on average. The event also boasted a total of 13.7 crore hours watched. The second and third most-watched events were TI(The International) and The IEM Katowice major for the games DOTA 2 and CS:GO respectively. TI (The International) was watched for 8.8 crore hours with a peak of 20 lakhs. Meanwhile, the IEM Katowice major was watched for 5.3 crore hours with a peak of 12 lakhs.
Apart from tournaments, people consume as much as 3.77 billion hours of gaming content across many different platforms in a quarter(i.e. 3 months). The most significant proportions are held by Twitch.tv(72.2%), Youtube Gaming(19.5%), Facebook Gaming(5.3%), Mixer.com(3%). On average people consume 900million hours of video content on twitch in a month.
Many different tournaments across various games are held throughout the year. Following is the Top-10 list of prize pool offered for various games throughout the year 2019.
10. Rainbow Six Seige — $4.10M (~ ₹30 crores) (2018: $1.9M)
9. Arena of Valor — $5.80M (~ ₹42 crores) (2018: $5.1M)
8. Call of Duty — $6.51M (~ ₹47 crores) (2018: $640K)
7. Magic the Gathering — $8.89M (~ ₹63 crores) (2018: $200K)
6. League of Legends — $9.02M (~ ₹65 crores) (2018: $14.5M)
5. Overwatch — $9.11M (~ ₹65 crores) (2018: $6.6M)
4. PUBG — $12.71M (~ ₹91 crores) (2018: $7.7M)
3. CS:GO — $21.1M (~ ₹151 crores) (2018: $22.6M)
2. DOTA 2 — $46.7M (~ ₹332 crores) (2018: $41.4M)
- Fortnite — $64.42M (~ ₹460 crores) (2018: $20M)
Playing video games is easy, I can click buttons too.
Well, if you can click buttons, I can swing a stupid bat too. Cricket is the national sport of India, unofficially. While I can understand why people love cricket from a historic point of view(alluding to the 1983 world cup). I can’t comprehend why would people still like a sport as stupid as Cricket. This is the only sport which has a team but no teamwork. Its discovery was a form of slavery, where masters would have a ‘bat’ and would ask slaves to throw a ‘ball’ for them so then they could hit it and have the slaves go pick it back up for them to throw it again. People call it ‘the gentlemen’s game’ as if people playing it are some sort of ‘upper class’ people. The whole game is based on inequality. As I have stopped following the sport, I have realised how stupid it is, where one person would hit the ball and 10 others would just run to catch it. I can keep going with the rant but coming back to esports, It’s a lot more fun to watch with relentless action, shorter games, not just one but several game-changing decisions where even a small detail could end up costing you the match.
To be the best in any traditional sports, you have to dedicate countless hours for many years. Similarly in any esport, people have to put countless hours to reach the professional level. Professional players have ground their way to the top by putting as many as 20,000 hours into the game. It has taken them years to be at the level they play. Even to consistently be at the top, they practice daily for eight to fourteen hours. They have training staff which includes a coach, gym trainers, sports psychologist, etc. Their training regime is as meticulous as a professional sport.
To know more about Complexity’s training facility check out this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfkQ60qe39U
Future of esports
Even though it is one of the fastest-growing industries in the market, it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Many mainstream companies have started to invest in esports. Viewership numbers are seeing new highs every year. Everything seems to be perfect to nurture it further. The future of esports is looking bright and it probably will be one of the biggest entertainment industries in the coming future.
