eSports is becoming quite the thing in today’s world. The Olympic Council of Asia has announced it will become a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games. It’s also scheduled as a demo edition of the Asian Games in 2018.
eSports equals big bucks
No one will be surprised to hear that more people watch competitive gaming than nearly anything else online. It dwarfs powerhouses such as HBO, Netflix, Hulu as well as traditional sports networks like ESPN. According to SuperData, the “worldwide gaming video content audience” runs to 665 MILLION people. Compare that to Netflix at 100 million or Hulu with 12 million. It doesn’t stop there either. In the next five years, gaming viewership could rise another 21%.
With all of this in mind, it’s no wonder that the Olympic Council of Asia approved the new medal event. It’s a huge step forward for e-Sports as it works to be included in the realm of professional athletes and teams. The Asian Games is a multi-sport competition with 10,000 athletes taking part.
At this point, we don’t know much about what games will be part of the event, but it’s not a stretch to imagine FIFA, League of Legends (or DOTA 2) and / or Starcraft 2 making the leap towards potential inclusion in the Olympics.
