Will E-sports be part of the Olympic Games?
Organizers of the Olympic Games in Paris are in deep talks about including esports at the Games of 2024. “It won’t be possible to be an official discipline yet, but to be a demonstration within the Paris Olympics”, said IeSF acting secretary general Leopold Chung (BBC, 2018). Although it won’t be an official discipline, this statement emphasizes the potential of E-sports, being included to the Games.
E-sports
Electronic sports (E-sports) refer to competitive video gaming watched by spectators. E-sports are not as popular as traditional sports in the world, but the number of fans of sports worldwide is still significant. According to the BBC, the world’s Esports audience exceeded 400 million in 2017, and will rise to almost 600 million in 2020. Consequently, the E-sports sponsorship market is growing (Pike, 2019), and companies like Intel and Alibaba already have a strong interest in this space (Segarra, 2019).
Millennials
In contrast, the number of viewers of the Olympics of Rio dropped with 15% compared to London the prior year (Tran, 2018). Mostly led by Millennials, whose viewership decreased with 31% (Tran, 2018). According to Michal Blicharz, VP of one of the world’s largest and oldest E-sports organizations, the audience of E-sports is between 16 and 28 years of age. Therefore, E-sports might have a crucial role, to help reverse the number of viewers of the Olympics.
Future
Although E-sports will become a medal event at the Asian Games of 2022 (BBC, 2017), “it’s unlikely to happen any time soon at the Olympics”, according to Kit McConnell, sports director for the IOC (Segarra, 2019). Very different governing structures, licensing problems, chargeability questions, and violence in video games are just some of the problems (Bloom, 2018).
Given these structural challenges, the introduction of E-sports at the Olympic Games won’t happen overnight. But as, E-sports has become a universal sport across global communities, with a large commercial potential, it will happen eventually.
References
BBC. (2017). Esports: International Olympic Committee considering esports for future Games [online]. Available at https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/41790148 [Accessed 16 October 2019].
BBC. (2017). E-sports to become a medal event in 2022 Asian Games [online]. Available at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39629099 [Accessed 16 October 2019].
BBC. (2018). Paris 2024 Olympics: Esports ‘in talks’ to be included as demonstration sport [online]. Available at https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/43893891 [Accessed 16 October 2019].
Bloom, D. (2018). What Olympic Recognition Could Mean For Esports, And Vice Versa [online]. Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/dbloom/2018/10/18/esports-olympics-recognition-ioc-esl-advertising-sponsors/#324cf68d3b05 [Accessed 16 October 2019].
Pike, N. (2019). No Crystal Ball Required: What Data Tells Us About the Future of Esports [online]. Available at https://esportsobserver.com/nielsen-2019-esports/ [Accessed 16 October 2019].
Segarra, L.M. (2019). Why the Olympic Games Are Steering Clear of E-Sports [online]. Available at https://fortune.com/2019/03/22/esports-olympic-future/ [Accessed 16 October 2019].
Tran, K. (2018). Why the esorts audience is set to surge – and how brands can take advantage of increased fans and viewership [online]. Available at https://www.businessinsider.com/the-esports-audience-report-2018-11?international=true&r=US&IR=T [Accessed 16 October 2019].
Despite not being the typical sport that we’re accustomed to, I think it makes very logical sense for e-sports to continue gaining traction in becoming an official sport. In many cases it already is; football teams such as Schalke 04 already play at the highest professional level. Additionally, as you said the sponsorship market is growing, and quickly. The game Fortnite (and others since) attracted millions of viewers to Twitch, and even brought in celebrities such as Drake and Travis Scott on stream. The potential for huge profits is there, and would be an interest way to attract more people to the Olympics and other similar competitions, especially if its popularity is indeed decreasing. Attracting the same type of following to these competitions as Twitch does, it could strongly boost its popularity again. However, it is also important to realize that many times it’s the person playing, not the game itself, that also attracts viewers. A “boring” streamer will likely get lower views than more popular, eccentric ones. In this case, this may not fully function for the Olympics, as there is less focus on the athletes, and more on the sports (although this could depend).
Anyways, I would be interesting to see its execution, as I feel it could go both ways.
I sincerely hope it won’t ever become a discipline at the Olympic Games, not in 2020, 2022, 2024, or ever. No hard feelings, but I feel the beauty of the Olympic Games is to see the hard work in training all the athletes and staff have put in for that one race, that one game, that one event that gives them the chance to win the most prestigious sports medal there is. The blood, sweat, and tears so to say is great to watch, really brings tension to the people watching in the stadium and the people on the couch at home all over the world. I feel like the Olympic Games is an event where people disconnect to come together, so shifting back to gaming (which is of course online) to connect does, in my opinion, not stand behind the values and beliefs of the Olympics. Perhaps I’m this critical about it because I’ve seen my younger brother have to train day in and out and fight for a spot in the field of competitors in alpine snowboarding, and its so so hard, yet so beautiful to watch. Trust me, I’d rather watch that than two gamers battle each other over a game of FIFA…