The Int'l 2018 had a total prize pool of $25.5M.GETTY IMAGES
Twenty-eight-year-old Ho Kun Xian started gaming as a young boy and years later, he "turned pro, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money as a gamer," according to Kharpal & Choudhury of CNBC. Xian's story "highlights the burgeoning esports industry," which is "minting millionaires" who play video games for a living by the age of 30. Teams or individuals play against each other in games such as EA's FIFA series or Valve Corporation's Dota 2 for hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money. Market research firm Newzoo forecasts the esports economy will grow to $905.6M this year and $1.4B by '20. While esports "may be smaller than traditional sports leagues" like the EPL or the NBA, it is "growing rapidly with new jobs and careers being made." Xian said, "I think I never thought, 'I better do this,' because even when I was 18 years old, there was no such thing as a pro gaming career, so this career didn't exist." It is only in the past few years that professional gaming has become a "viable career option." Prize money for winning tournaments is "on the rise" and major brands want to sponsor teams or competitions "to reach a millennial audience." The Int'l 2018, the biggest tournament for Dota 2, was held in August and had a total prize pool of $25.5M. The final had nearly 15 million people watching across various streaming sites, including Amazon-owned Twitch. If you took out the number of Chinese viewers, that number would have fallen to 1.2 million, "showing the scale of the market in the world's second-largest economy." In fact, esports is a truly int'l "phenomenon." Newzoo expects 53% of the esports audience to be in the Asia Pacific region in '18 and 18% to be in Europe. In comparison, North America will account for around 14% (CNBC, 10/3).
