eSports to Feature at 2022 Asian Games in China

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Tuesday, May 23rd, 2017 | Written by Adam Brown

With the rise of eSports, many gaming industry insiders have argued about whether or not this form of gaming would ever rival the popularity of professional organized sports. Now, there is some indication that eSports might be on pace for becoming a spectator professional sport in its own right, at least in Asia. The exciting development follows an announcement by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), which recently stated that eSports would be included in the 2022 Asian Games.

Chinese retail sports firm Alisports is cosponsoring the eSports portions of the games, which is scheduled to take place in Hangzhou, China, with competitors subsequently having a chance to vie for gold, silver and bronze metals across a range of different eSports disciplines and games. This includes FIFA (sports), Starcraft (strategy) and Dota and League of Legends (multiplayer online battle arena). As OCA president Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah explained in a statement:

“The OCA has always been committed to the inheritance, development, and improvement of Asian sports. And we look forward to the forward-thinking concepts of sports by Alisports, who will be helping us with their strength and experience in eSports.”

Meeting Popular Demand

In determining whether or not to include eSports in the 2022 Asian Games, the Olympic Council of Asia conducted a survey to determine just how popular gaming was. The survey found that 40.75 percent of people 18 years of age or older in China played online or virtual games in a live environment, and that roughly another 47 percent of those surveyed either played virtual or online games on a regular basis.

It’s no surprise, then, that Asia will be the first area of the world to elevate eSports to the realm of Olympic competition. After all, eSports is far more popular in Asia and the Pacific than it is the rest of the world, with roughly 51 percent of eSports viewers and participants hailing from the region. In the meantime, 18 percent hail from Europe, 13 percent are from North America, and the remaining 18 percent from other places across the world.

Exponential Growth

The announcement about the 2022 Asian Games comes at a time when eSports is growing at a remarkable pace each year, with the global eSports market predicted to reach a total size of $1.5 billion in 2020. Furthermore, people love to watch eSports as much as they love to participate, and industry experts expect the total number of eSports viewers worldwide to exceed 40 million by 2019.

In Asia, the market is worth around $132 million today, with roughly 39 percent of that relating to advertising, and sponsorship accounting for another 29 percent. In addition, media rights make up 10 percent of the market, publisher fees account for about 16 percent of the revenue., while another 6 percent is generated by merchandise and ticket sales.

An Olympic Sport?

So what could be the future of eSports? Many are hoping that the 2022 Asian Games will open the door to eSports becoming a full-fledged Olympic sport. Already, the eSports industry is pushing to have gaming included in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, with LA 2024, the group responsible for bringing the Olympics back to LA, having already gone on record as supporting eSports as a competitive sport. A lot will probably depend on how successful the 2022 Asian Games prove to be, though, and we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed and our eyes on Hangzhou to see what unfolds.

In the meantime, in a sign of the game’s growing popularity, the University of Utah recently announced that it would be granting scholarships to students who make its landmark eSports varsity team, the first such program of its kind for one the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) 5 major conferences. Commenting on the development, AJ Dimick, the University of Utah’s director of operations of eSports, stated:

“eSports is growing exponentially in the world and it is, too, on the college scene. Part of our motivation for doing this is we wanted to help other Power 5 schools and other bigger schools, kind of, see themselves doing it. We hope that us jumping over and getting into this will encourage some of those schools to follow suit. And we think they will.”