The commercial value of e-sports events is gradually highlighted
Since the birth of the League of Legends, the Chinese team has stood on the podium for the first time at the global finals.On November 3, the 2018 League of Legends Global Finals (hereinafter referred to as "S8"), in which Chinese team IG won the championship, caused a lot of hot debates among many players. "), the Chinese team IG's win caused many players to discuss, and the increasing number of sponsors behind the S8 is proof of the commercial value of e-competition events.
The League of Legends Global Finals, hosted by Fist Games, is the highest level as well as the most gold-rich of all League of Legends competitions, and has so far hosted 8 editions of the S1-S8*** competition. In this year's competition, due to the continuous development of the e-sports industry and continue to generate a high degree of heat, many capital also aimed at this field, and through sponsorship with a view to obtaining better marketing value. Beijing Business News reporter learned that the S8 **** to attract about 50 sponsors, sponsorship not only covers the simple sponsorship of the tournament derivation, but also includes sponsorship of the relevant clubs and their players. Among them, the three clubs participating in the tournament RNG, EDG and IG have 11, 7 and 3 sponsors respectively, while RNG's player Uzi was announced as the spokesman by Nike during the tournament.
China's e-sports industry is still in a period of rapid development
According to the statistics of the Market Outlook Forecast and Investment Strategy Planning Analysis Report of the E-Sports Industry released by the Prospective Industry Research Institute, China's e-sports market scale exceeded 77 billion yuan by 2017, reaching 77.28 billion yuan. It is expected that the size of China's eSports market will exceed 88 billion yuan in 2018, with an estimated net increase of 35 billion yuan in two years. Among them, the main revenue of the e-sports industry still comes from game revenue, accounting for 93%.
In which the market size of e-sports events is 1.06 billion yuan, accounting for 1.2%. Compared with the proportion of traditional sports events, the revenue of e-sports events accounted for a low proportion of the e-sports industry, and there is still huge room for growth. As the influence of headline e-sports events has been comparable to that of traditional sports events, the number of popular e-sports events is increasing, and the commercialization of e-sports events is accelerating, it is expected that the future market size will exceed 10 billion yuan.
China's e-sports user development space is huge
In the past three years, China's e-sports user growth rate has continued to maintain more than 20%, the user scale growth of more than 100 million people. The main reason is, firstly, the increased inclination of gaming enterprises for e-sports games, the increase in the number of e-sports events, and the gradual enhancement of their influence; secondly, the organization of many headline e-sports events such as the League of Legends World Finals in China, which has contributed to the rapid growth of the scale of e-sports users in China. The size of the population covered by e-sports in China is close to 500 million people, these are potential e-sports user groups, the scale of e-sports users still has huge growth space, in the past three years, China's e-sports user growth rate has remained above 20%, and it is expected that the scale of China's e-sports users in 2018 will reach 430 million people.
Development of e-sports games: China's e-sports game market is developing rapidly, with revenues exceeding 70 billion yuan
In the e-sports industry chain, e-sports games are the core. On the one hand, eSports games are one of the most economically efficient parts of the industry.
In 2017, the actual sales revenue of China's eSports game market exceeded 70 billion yuan, and has maintained rapid growth over the past few years, and in the future, due to the impact of factors such as the launch of STEAM China and other factors, it is expected that the revenue will have the opportunity to be further increased. It is expected that the revenue will have the opportunity to increase further. On the other hand,
eSports games also occupy the upper reaches of the entire industry chain, and can generate explosive events, which also require the authorization of game products.
Analysis of the commercialization value of e-sports events
1. The influence of a single event is comparable to that of traditional sports. E-sports events have a huge fan base and a high degree of user activity, and the influence of individual events in some headline e-sports games has been able to surpass that of traditional sports events. Take the just-concluded League of Legends mid-season tournament as an example, the tournament's performance in social media performance, video broadcasting, and audience size are all close to or comparable to the NBA.Influence is the basis of the commercial value of the tournament, eSports tournaments influence is comparable to that of traditional sports, which is conducive to its future commercialization and to increase the size of the eSports tournament market.
2. There are more than 500 popular e-sports events throughout the year. The number of popular e-sports events has exceeded 500. With the increase in the number of e-sports games and the rise in the scale of e-sports users, the number of e-sports tournaments is expected to increase further in the future. Tournaments are the foundation of e-sports, and an increase in the number of tournament bases can not only directly enhance the scale of the e-sports market, but also help to explore the commercialization of e-sports in different ways, thus accelerating the maturity of the e-sports market.
Analysis of obstacles to commercialization of e-sports events
1. Failure to disseminate through mainstream media such as TV hinders the commercialization of e-sports events. Among the many obstacles to the commercialization of e-sports events, the failure to communicate through mainstream media such as TV is an important one. This not only directly affects the income from broadcasting licenses, but also adversely affects
the dissemination of e-commerce events.
Currently, domestic games and related programs cannot be disseminated through open-circuit TV channels, while digital pay-channels and set-top boxes are slow to promote and not
sufficient in influence. The main dissemination channel for e-sports events in China is live broadcasting platforms, but these platforms themselves have a number of drawbacks, including user coverage and live broadcasting market chaos. The restricted distribution channels will affect the commercialization of e-commerce events and reduce their commercial value.
Meanwhile, in some overseas countries, TV broadcasting has become the main support for the rapid development of e-sports overseas, and e-sports events disseminated through mainstream media
have a large audience and receive a high degree of attention, coupled with the excellent production of the event, which makes the commercial value of the event higher than that of the domestic market. Therefore, exploring the development of broader coverage of TV
broadcasting is crucial to the commercialization of eSports events in China.