If you’re involved in the worlds of gaming, gambling, or sports, you’re sure to have heard about the rise of eSports in the last year. This intriguing category of sports has been swarming the media as of late, and it’s easy to see why.
The combination of video games and professional sports is utterly entrancing, and the amount of effort that professional gamers put into league games is incredible. There’s a common misconception amongst non-gamers that eSports isn’t difficult to play, but looking into competitive MOBA tournaments on Twitch easily puts those rumors to rest.
Gaming and technology developments go hand in hand, which is why it’s so fascinating to consider where the future of eSports might take us. How will we watch competitive gaming in the future? Where will professional gamers be by the end of 2024? Only time will tell.
In this blog post, we’re going to be going over our top 5 predictions for the future of eSports, covering everything from major league baseball to the Olympics.
It’s going to be more popular than the NBA and major league baseball
One prediction that seems to be sweeping the online publications right now that we agree with is that eSports is going to eventually end up outranking most major sports in popularity. This may be shocking to read right now, but give it some time; this industry is growing at an astronomical rate, as summed up by this handy Media Village article.
More brands and celebrities are going to realize the value of eSports
A trend that you may have noticed going into 2024 is that plenty of celebrities are starting to invest in eSports teams and companies. People like Drake and The Weeknd have been seen investing incredible amounts of funds into teams, companies and resources to help better the ever-growing community of professional gamers.
Our next prediction for the future of eSports is that more and more businesses and celebrities are going to start to invest in eSports, even more than they are already. The eSports industry is growing at an incredible rate, and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down, so modern companies will do well to pay attention to it.
This has also been recently validated by world-renown JP Morgan Investment Group calling sports betting as one of the top ten attractions the investment world should pay attention to. This is particularly applicable in the United States where sports betting has slowly and steadily been legalized from one state to another after the Supreme Court reversed its position and declared that there is nothing inherently illegal about mobile and online sports betting. Since most sportsbooks are not necessarily located in residential areas, the ability to simply place based from the comfort of your home is a huge win for anyone who wants to do it safely and legally across the board.
Professional gamers will achieve even higher levels of fame
We predict that professional gamers and eSports teams are going to ascend to much higher, mainstream levels of fame in the coming years. Icons like Ninja, a popular Fortnite player, are already earning millions from industry giants like Microsoft. This trend is surely going to continue well into 2024 and beyond.
Another reason why eSports players will continue to rise in popularity has nothing to do with simply their game craft. Instead, it has to do with the increasingly jaw-dropping first prize awards provided to the best of the best players. Over the last few years, we’ve seen more and more contests where the top place for an eSport event could fetch more than 1 million dollars. That’s crazy, if you think about it, especially considering that most players are either teenagers or young adults. 1 million dollars is something that anyone would be beyond delighted to win, let alone someone who’s just starting their adult life. As a result, eSports players will simply become more and more popular as the sheer award size becomes larger. And that’s good for everyone involved, at the end of the day.
A new level of innovation in the gaming world will occur
Something that we love about the worlds of gaming and eSports is that they’re constantly evolving. The world of eSports is tied into the world of gambling and betting, thanks to gaming fans and the rise of fantasy sports games. Industry giants like the Hard Rock Casino keep the eSports and gaming worlds ticking over with innovation and creativity according to NJGamblingFun.
For example, Hard Rock Casino was the first one to invest in online immersive slots experience and even VR gaming experiences. This is one of the biggest and most untapped parts of the market. The world is thinking of VR headsets in the context of traditional games which can now simply be played in the comfort of your living room. That’s all great, but think about it, eSports is a slightly different ball game. With eSports, very soon into the future you may simply get your VR set on and simply experience what the best players do – with all the game sounds, excitement, and interactions that you expect the eSports player to take part in. What makes this beyond exciting is the fact the new technology can go beyond just connecting players and bettors. Instead, it helps bettors actually take part in the overall gaming experience. We expect Hard Rock Casino to simply lead the way here which will then force the rest of the industry fo to follow suit.
We predict that the world of eSports is going to see even further innovation in the coming months. To put it simply, we’re not going to be looking at the same industry by the end of 2024.
The next addition to the Olympics could be eSports
Our final prediction was inspired by this 7News article, which noted that the International Olympics Committee President, Thomas Bach, has stated that virtual reality eSports could be a very realistic addition to the Olympics roster of sports. The earliest year that eSports could be added is rumored to be 2024.
We predict that eSports is going to reach new heights of mainstream popularity and competitive appeal and that it could end up being present in global competitions like the Olympics.
