Esports still attracts massive audiences, fills major arenas and offers multimillion-dollar prize pools. But the billion-dollar valuations and relentless hype that surrounded the industry during the COVID-19 era have largely disappeared.
Just six years after the pandemic transformed the entertainment landscape, it is easy to forget how quickly esports exploded in popularity.
As lockdowns pushed people away from traditional sports and entertainment, esports was repeatedly touted as the next major spectator phenomenon — one that could eventually compete with traditional sports for audiences and advertising dollars.
That prediction never materialised.
But that does not mean esports has disappeared. Far from it. The industry still commands enormous audiences, although its true size and growth are difficult to measure.
Dr. Tobias Scholz, associate professor for Academic Esports at Norway’s University of Agder, estimates the global esports market could be worth anywhere between $2 billion and well over $5 billion. Even defining esports, however, can be complicated.
“Esports is human, digital and competitive: a human plays, the field of play is digital, and the point is to win,” Scholz explained.
The Audience Is Still There
League of Legends remains one of the biggest esports titles in the world. Riot Games reported that the 2024 League of Legends World Championship final attracted 50 million peak viewers and averaged 33 million viewers per minute globally, including China.
Even without China, the final reached 6.7 million peak viewers.
Other major esports properties continue to draw significant audiences. Activision’s Call of Duty League averages 109,000 concurrent viewers per match and has generated more than 45 million hours watched during the season.
Major live events are also attracting thousands of fans. Blizzard expects around 37,000 people to attend its BlizzCon event in Anaheim, with millions more expected to watch online.
So the audience clearly exists. The bigger question is whether esports has figured out how to turn that audience into sustainable revenue.
Esports’ Media Rights Problem
Traditional sports have a powerful financial engine in media rights. Esports has yet to develop anything comparable.
GameSquare CEO Justin Kenna describes the current esports media landscape as a “Wild West”.
YouTube and Twitch dominate esports streaming, but neither has genuine exclusivity over most competitions. Fans and even former professional players can also co-stream major tournaments from their personal channels.
Former FaZe Clan Call of Duty professional Tommy “ZooMaa” Paparatto told The Hollywood Reporter that some of his most popular content has come from co-streaming esports events.
That creates an unusual situation where an individual can effectively rebroadcast a major competition to their own audience without the traditional media-rights structure seen in professional sports.
The Industry May Be Measuring the Wrong Audience
Another problem is that esports audiences are not necessarily watching on the platforms traditional media companies are accustomed to measuring.
In markets such as China, Indonesia, India, Brazil and the Middle East and North Africa, much of the esports audience consumes content on mobile devices rather than PCs.
Scholz believes this creates a major analytics problem.
“We are measuring the wrong screen,” he said.
That matters because audience numbers directly influence advertising value. If large portions of the audience are being missed or poorly measured, brands may be less willing to pay what the actual reach would justify.
Huge Prize Pools, Bigger Questions
Esports also lacks a single governing body comparable to those found across traditional sports.
At the same time, enormous amounts of money continue to enter the industry, particularly from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
The Esports World Cup now features a combined prize pool of $75 million, while major tournaments are increasingly being staged in large sporting arenas.
The 2025 BLAST.tv Austin Counter-Strike Major, for example, held its playoff rounds at the 15,000-plus-seat Moody Center in Austin. The production featured arena-style lighting, dramatic player introductions and a capacity crowd that erupted when American team FaZe Clan took the stage.
The spectacle looked every bit like a major traditional sporting event.
The problem is that impressive crowds and enormous prize pools do not automatically translate into sustainable business models.
Esports may still have the audience, the stars and the ability to fill arenas. What it has not yet proven is that those ingredients can support the astronomical valuations once attached to the industry.
And that may be the biggest lesson from the esports boom: the industry was never a fake phenomenon — but the belief that it would inevitably become the next NBA may have been.
