E-sports a global social threat. Social Sciences essay

Esports
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Esports a global social threat
Over the years, the esports industry has seen rapid growth in viewership and revenue generation. In 2018 for example, the total esports revenue was estimated to be over $869 million - capturing the attention of over 400 million viewers across the world. According to Hamari & Sjöblom (2017), esports (electronic sports) is a form of a game where the major elements of sports are expedited by electronic systems. In esports, human-computer interfaces determine the inputs such as players and teams as well as output (Lokhman, 2018). In more practical form, esports are competitive games organized in different leagues, rankings and play-offs and players are assigned to diverse groups under different roles (Hamari & Sjöblom, 2017).
Currently, many of the sports have been commercialized and in some arrangements, they have grown to become big businesses. According to British Esports Association (2019), the expansion of sport commercially as well business growth with the help of sport are two interrelated components with higher opportunities of growth and profitability for all participants (Jenny et al., 2018). Similarly, esports video games competitions have grown in popularity drawing enthusiast and occasional viewers hence rivalling traditional sporting events such as football (Holden et al., 2017). Hamari & Sjöblom, 2017, maintained that esports and social media are the biggest threat to keeping the general public especially the youth interested in traditional forms of sports. On the other hand, the British Esports Association argues that esports help people connect, help to rehabilitate people with cognitive or perceptual deficits; increases cognitive performance, promotes teamwork; motivates people to achieve their goal and promotes relaxation and ward off anxiety. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore esports in the modern day.
Typically esports are categorized into different genres such as sports games, racing, fighting games, real-time strategy, first-person shooter, collectable card game, multiplayer online battle arena to mention a few (Hamari & Sjöblom, 2017). Fighting games such as Street Fighter were the primary games to be in electronic tournaments. Basically, the games entail competitive matches between a player character and character controlled by another player or the game. On the other hand, multiplayer online battle arena games such as league of legends and Dota 2, are known to have the highest number of participants and viewers. Real-time strategy games like StarCraft 2 are the most convenient form of electronic games as the participants can play them anywhere on personal computers on the internet (Martončik, 2015). Currently, Sports games such as FIFA-series have been recorded high rates of growth in participants and viewership. Over the years, some of the games such as counter-strike, league of legend, StarCraft 2, Overwatch, call of duty: World war II have been known to perform well in the market.
A quick examination of the esports industry shows rapid growth in both viewership and revenue generated. The increased revenue can be attributed to the increasing viewership and does not necessarily mean that the viewers are generating revenues (PR Newswire, 2019). Consequently, different brands are seeing the potential of reaching a large and engaged hence the increased direct and indirect marketing investment. Since 2016, the number of viewers both occasional and viewers and enthusiasts have been on the rise. For example, between the year 2016 and 2017, the number of occasional enthusiasts increased by 20% (Stevens, 2018). In a similar intensity, the number of viewers increased at a rate of 14% between 2017 and 2018. Predicts that by 2021, the growth will be approximately 12% making the number of viewers to exceed 600 million (British Esports Association, 2019).
On the other hand, it is not a surprise that more people are engaged in esports and video games bearing in mind how online platforms are abridging esports content consumption. Today, esports enthusiasts can stream from these online platforms to broadcast live coverage of proceedings and their gameplay (British Esports Association, 2019). As a result, this has made it easier for the fans to participate in their preferred events as well as interact with their favorite esports athletes. According to Streamlabs analysis, Twitch and YouTube had 1.13 million and 500,000 active streamers per quarter respectively. The viewership is expected to increase by 25% by the year 2022.
Another notable difference is the amount of time spent on esports events. With the number of people consuming esports content being on the rise, the number of hours spent on the esports is increasing every year. For example, in 2012 people only spent approximately 1.3 billion hours on esports events and 2.4 billion hours in the year 2013. In 2018, a drastic increase was observed with participants spending over 6.5 billion hours in esports. On average, the hours spent on esports is increasing at a rate of 1 billion hours every year. Opponents argue that the hours spent on esports could be of great benefits if they were spent on other social and economic activities (PR Newswire, 2019)
Further still, esports has been contributing immensely on the revenue growth as well as economic development in the past years. On realizing the prospective benefits of tapping into esports market, some players have invested heavily into esports marketing. According to the average revenues have been increasing every year at a rate of 30%. For instance, in 2016, the revenue increased from $493 million to $655 million which is equivalent to 33%. In 2018, the average year on year increases in total revenue was at an impressive rate of 38.2% from the previous year (PR Newswire, 2019).
Esports has gained international recognition in recent years. However, up to date, there are still conflicts among major stakeholders on whether esports should be accepted as a real sport (Pizzo et al., 2018). The controversial debates on esports are a relatable concern for not only defining esports but also for drawing the limits on what is understood as being sports in general (Wagner, 2006). Most of the traditional sports supporters argue esports can be considered as a sport as it is hard to measure the player’s competence and physical prowess or fitness as most of the times the athletes are just comfortably sitting with minimal activity (Hamari & Sjöblom, 2017)
Further, Wagner (2006), maintained the physical activity of a player is a critical element in any form of sports. On the contrary, Parry (2019), argued esports by all definition fits like a real sport much like chess o...