The cybersport's growing popularity forced China to adjust its approach towards esports. The country has taken first place in the world in terms of revenues taken from this sector, while further development continues. The successful organization of League of Legends 2020 Finals shows how professionally esports is perceived in China, and this positive tendency for the state seems to continue.
According to the latest esports news, one of the most steadily-growing business sectors in 2020 was cybersport. The ability to play tournaments online gave a huge advantage to digital gaming compared to land-based traditional sports. During the weird situation globally, China gained a leading position in developing and promoting cybersports, taking the biggest revenues at the same time.
What is the current financial disposition in esports?
The Newzoo report states that the cybersport market value will reach $1.1B at the end of this year. The lion's share of this sum will belong to China with about $385M. The former leader, the US, expects about $253M revenues, while the third place belongs to Western Europe with slightly more than $200M.
More than $5M prize pool for the League of Legends (LoL) 2020 finals is formed from tournaments organizers and in-game skins and related spendings related to the event. The popular broadcasting platform Bilibili has purchased the rights for showing LoL finals for $1.2M for three years. According to their report, the final of the last tournament gathered about 50 million unique viewers.
The organizational steps China makes to be a global esports leader
The pandemic forced a lot of sporting establishments to review the organizational approaches. Thus, the creation of Bubbles became a new reality: the NBA locked down in Disneyland, the UFC decided to live and work on the Fight Island (Abu Dhabi, UAE), while the primary boxing events take place only in the closed zone in Las Vegas.
The organizers of the League of Legends 2020 Finals, one of the most popular cybersport disciplines, decided to organize the same Bubble in Shanghai. They were even able to bring the limited number of fans (6312 out of 33 765 maximum capacity) to the Pudong Stadium, which is a newly built arena that can host esports events. Moreover, the Chinese job sites now have such positions as 'esports professional" and "esports operator," which were added at the beginning of 2020. All this shows how the leading countries are developing their cybersport direction.
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