Esports is slowly taking over the entertainment industry. Video games like Fortnite, Minecraft, Call of Duty, and Among Us are spread to the masses through platforms like Twitch and Youtube, where both causal Internet personalities and and professional Esports “athletes” upload videos and broadcast live in front of massive online audiences. If you have children, you have probably heard of Ninja, Dream, or Pewdiepie. The professional gaming scene has blossomed over the past decade and is really starting to pick up steam on the mainstream.
Anthony Terling with AO Tourism joined Zac Blackerby and Lindsay Crosby on NewsTalk WANI’s Auburn/Opelika This Morning to talk about the gradual mainstream shift from traditional sports to Esports.
Anthony Terling: It gets everybody going. One Saturday morning at 8:30 I was flipping through channels and I was sitting there on ABC, and I’m like “why does this title on the TV guide look like a sporting event? What is going on this early on ABC’s main national channel? And I look and its Quicken Loans Arena filled to the brim– 18,000 people watching Fortnite. And the audience is not just roughly 18,000 people in the arena as well as the players, but on top of it you’ve got the viewers. Here’s just some basic numbers from data from 2019 projecting the audience this year- it’s a global audience of 600 million fans for esports. Right now, when we look at our country, and the traditional sports, what’s happening is from the stuff I’ve read is the traditional sports viewer is starting to wane. The viewers of the MLB, the NBA, even the NFL are seeing dips in numbers. Esports has more viewers than the MLB, the NBA, and they are a ways away from the NFL, but Esports is projected to overtake all of the 4 major sport leagues in a short amount of time. This thing is just being tapped into.
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