A Brief History of eSports

Edited & prepared by Oscar Michel, Masters in Journalism, DCU.

Blizzard recently announced that their latest hit online game, Overwatch was being played by 25 million gamers. This was a startling revelation,first, 25 million players coming to a single game was a huge feat for blizzard. Secondly that number represents a huge number of people that willing to spend their time gaming.

The success of Overwatch is just another reason why everyone should be paying attention to eSports industry as games like Overwatch have attracted a lot of money and audiences. This in turn attracted sponsors like Xbox and Redbull that are investing heavily in tournaments.

As game developers develop new video games that have beautiful graphics, excellent gameplay and challenging multiplayer settings, gamers are hooked and want to share their experiences with others. These shared experiences on online gaming have helped spawn more platforms. Most notably, Twitch where gamers can broadcast their gaming live to audiences.

eSports is reshaping the gaming industry. Almost every game now comes with multiplayer options. Games that were traditional single player now have co-op option to adopt multiplayer elements and attract gamers. With games like Overwatch which are adding more numbers, the future it seems belongs to eSports.

eSports have come a long way from simple tournaments to multinational gaming event. Learn all about it in this new infographic by Computer Planet.

Infographic

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