For those of you somehow still in denial that esports is a rapidly growing industry, Newzoo, the global leader in esports, games, and mobile intelligence has announced its annual Esports Market Report, and the numbers are incredibly high. In this report, it is estimated that esports will generate $905.6 million in revenue, a staggering 48 percent increase from last year. This total revenue is broken down from $174 million on advertising, $359 million on sponsorship, and a further $161 million on media rights and content licenses. It’s undeniable at this point; esports is a phenomenon that doesn’t look to be slowing down in the slightest. There’s a lot to unpack from this report but let’s look at some of the exciting aspects of the data.

First of all, media rights have seen a huge jump in the past year, increasing by 77 percent, meaning fans have been supporting the esports industry heavily. Fans have generated 96 million dollars in revenue based on ticket sales and buying esports merchandise and an additional 116 million will be invested by game publishers to help further improve existing and future esports leagues. Newzoo CEO Peter Warman sums this report up perfectly saying, “As a consumer phenomenon, esports continues to grow its huge base of passionate fans across the globe. As a business, esports is now entering a new and critical phase toward maturity. Big investments have been made, new league structures have been launched, sponsorship budgets have moved from experimental to continuous, and international media rights trade is starting to heat up. At the same time, player salaries have soared and the esports ecosystem and viewership hours still very much rely on a select number of globally operating teams and game franchises. Profitability and return on investment is, for many organizations at the heart of the Esports Economy, a challenge.”

Ultimately Esports are at a critical time in its lifespan as a business. Popularity is soaring, players can actually make a living off an esports salary, and major investments have been made to make esports leagues as professional and exciting as possible. At this point, it seems like the only thing that can deter the esports industry are the game publishers themselves. In the worst-case scenario if say Overwatch or League of Legends did something to drastically cause players to abandon the game, the esports industry would take a major hit. However, as long as these games stay the course, the esports industry will likely continue to grow to new and exciting heights.