According to new research by Curries Pc Nation, the e-sports market is currently worth $1.1 billion in 2020 and is expected to be $1.8 billion by 2022.
Sponsors made $456 million of the $1.1 billion total esports sales last year with those of Red Bull, BMW (BMW.DE), basketball player Michael Jordan and rapper Drake among the most high-profile sponsors.
Separate research has found, according to the WARC international marketing intelligence service, that the brand investment in esports advertisement and sponsorship will hit $844m (£657m) in 2020, by 9.9 percent worldwide and is expected to grow to $1 billion by 2022.
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Esports sales have tripled over the last five years from $325 million to $1,1 billion, and the audience size is multiplied between 120 million and 495 million.
Esports is a sporting contest that uses computer games, often in the form of organized multiplayer competition for computer games, especially between players or teams.
Although Covid-19 forced several live Electronic events to cancel, there was an increase of 20 percent in the number of hours broadcast during lockdown by some in the virtual environment with streaming websites like Twitch and YouTube.
Top e-sports players have the opportunity to win big with tournaments promising major financial rewards. The biggest rival is the USA, which won $41.3 million in 2019. Followed by China, which last year won a profit of $18.5 million, and South Korea ($16.5 million).
Multiplayer Dota 2, offering a $223.3 m prize pool, is the best competitive esports title in 2020.