Esports

The first-ever Olympic Esports Games have been rescheduled to 2027

Three-quarters of students in the UK support the inclusion of esports in the school curriculum, while 64% are already participating in esports-related educational activities

The Malaysian government is allocating $4.64 million (£3.58 million or RM20 million) to enhance the nation's esports ecosystem

FIFA has revealed a collaboration with Konami to extend its FIFAe World Cup esports tournament, which will now feature the publisher's free-to-play game, eFootball.

Esports Wales has been granted up to £125,000 through the Creative Skills Fund

Niko has published its 2024 India Gamer Behavior and Market Insights Report, indicating that over three-quarters of PC gamers reported an increase in their spending on PC games in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period the previous year. The report states that 65.4% of respondents are involved in esports, whether by playing, watching, or competing themselves, and 57.2% learn about new games through streamers and influencers. The report, which delves into areas such as gamer behavior, expenditure, gaming hours, preferred platforms, esports, and mergers and acquisitions, among other topics, also reveals that 57% of mobile gamers in India have played a battle royale game in the last three months, with BGMI and Free Fire being particularly popular.

Riot Games has undertaken a leadership restructuring within its esports and entertainment divisions. Current esports president John Needham has been named president of both publishing and esports, with a mandate to develop "new integrated experiences" that bring together its esports, music, and creative publishing areas. Needham joined Riot in 2017 as managing director for Europe and has since occupied several prominent positions. Before his tenure at Riot, he served as head of European publishing at Lionhead and was the CEO of Cryptic Studios

The International Olympic Committee has disclosed that the inaugural Olympic Esports Games are set to take place in Saudi Arabia in 2025. The IOC, alongside the National Olympic Committee of Saudi Arabia, has established a 12-year partnership for this initiative, with events scheduled to occur at regular intervals. The selection of a city and venue remains pending. The IOC announced its intentions for the Olympic Esports Games last October. Esports made an appearance in the 2022 Commonwealth Games but are not slated for inclusion in the 2026 edition.

FIFA has teamed up with Rocket League to launch an esports World Cup. The announcement, made during the Rocket League Championship Series on Sunday, disclosed that 16 nations will participate, each represented by a team of three players and one substitute. Selection of the countries will be determined by the number of participants in prior Rocket League Major events

We continue to summarize the results of 2023 together with the game teams. Next up is an interview with Albert Zhiltsov, director of 1C Game Studios.

On September 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum. During his speech, he instructed Russian companies to pay attention to esports and support its development.

Blizzard Entertainment has been hit with layoffs at its esports team. Although the company recently reported record quarterly revenues, the future of the Overwatch League is currently uncertain, with sources worrying that the entire division might be closed.

In the Blizzard studio, despite record revenues (it received a net $ 1 billion for the first time in the quarter), cuts began. 50 people who specialized in esports lost their places.

Data analytics firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has shared a new report on the US video games and esports market. Here are the key figures and takeaways, as well as a forecast for the next five years.

Extra-curricular esports classes and esports clubs may appear in Malaysian schools. The head of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the country, Hannah Yeoh, intends to discuss the launch of the initiative with representatives of the Ministry of Education.

In September last year ESforce esports holding, part of VK Group, sold the club Virtus.pro . At that time, the amount of the transaction was not disclosed, but VK named it in the financial report for 2022.

By the end of 2024, esports courses may appear in Russian universities. This is reported by the Vedomosti newspaper with reference to the roadmap “New System-wide Software” (NOPO) approved on December 16.

The government of the Chinese city of Hangzhou will begin to pay more attention to the development of local gaming and esports industries. It announced its decision on the eve of the Asian Summer Games, which will be held next year, including on the territory of Hangzhou.

On November 10, MEPs adopted a resolution to support video games and esports. Now they have to develop a long-term strategy for the development of industries.

The Chinese city of Shenzhen wants to become the world center of esports. His government has announced that it will allocate up to $690,000 to those developers whose games will be used at major international championships. Creators of less popular esports games will also be able to receive investments — up to $ 280 thousand.

According to analyst Daniel Ahmad, the hotel will open in August. It will be based in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.

VK Play and ResearchMe conducted a study on esports. They interviewed 1,500 Russians over the age of 18 and found out that only 57% of respondents know about esports (and another 28% have heard of such a term).

The research company Grand View Research has released a report on the esports market. According to analysts, in the next eight years, its revenue will grow by an average of 21.9% and by 2030 will exceed the mark of $ 12.49 billion.

The Novosibirsk School of the Olympic Reserve in shooting sports will now prepare for the esports championships. According to Vesti Novosibirsk, the country’s first esports school has opened on its basis.

Asia remains the largest esports market. According to the analytical company Niko Partners, last year the turnover of the global esports market reached $1.1 billion — Asian countries were responsible for $634.3 million of this amount.

Russian officials are increasingly talking about the need to support the Russian gaming industry. Now the working group “Development of computer sports in the Russian Federation” under the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports has spoken about this.

In early April, Tencent announced that it was going to close Penguin Esports, the Chinese equivalent of Twitch, in the near future. On June 7, she really did it. At 23:59, the holding shut down the platform’s servers, and soon removed its application from the stores.

The Chinese authorities may be planning to take up the regulation of esports. The other day, People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China, proposed putting an end to the “chaos” in this segment of the gaming industry and starting to closely monitor the organizers of the competitions.

A new book about video games has appeared on the shelves of Russian stores. It’s called “Esports. Games, money, two clicks.” It was written by William Collis, one of the founders of the Gamer Sensei platform and the esports organization Team Genji. We share an excerpt of the book.

By the end of 2022, esports disciplines will appear in Russian universities. Rostelecom proposed the idea to the Government. The company is confident that video games will make students more creative and stress—resistant, as well as teach them how to work in a team and make quick decisions.

The lack of large offline tournaments has not prevented the growth of esports. According to analysts from Niko Partners, last year the turnover of this market amounted to almost $ 1 billion. At the same time, more than half of all revenue came from Asian countries.Key data from the report

The analytical company Newzoo named the key trends in the development of the esports industry, which are worth paying attention to in 2021. Among them is the growing popularity of mobile titles and conversational streams, as well as the development of regional tournaments.The growing popularity of mobile esports

The organizer of esports events from the “Celestial Empire” Versus Programming Network (VSPN) held a Series B funding round for $ 100 million. Now the company plans, among other things, to build an esports research institute.

While the entire gaming business is growing by leaps and bounds against the background of the coronavirus, esports does not justify the hopes of experts. Newzoo has been lowering its forecast for its final revenue for the third time this year.

Newzoo together with PayPal conducted a study of the European esports market. It is expected that the number of women in the industry will continue to grow, and the total audience of esports will exceed 90 million people by the end of the year.

In just four weeks, the series on the network shooter CrossFire has gained almost 1 billion views in China. Such success is associated with the ever-growing interest in esports in the “Celestial Empire”, where professional leagues gather millions of audiences around them. We understand the phenomenon. What happened and why?

An American company with Ukrainian roots Mobalytics, which helps users analyze their gaming sessions and pump up esports skills, announced the closure of the funding round A. The company received $ 11.5 million.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 quarantine, Russians have been showing increasing interest in games and, in particular, in esports. This conclusion is made by industry representatives interviewed by Kommersant.

The coronavirus forced Newzoo to adjust the forecast for the esports market for 2020: this year, many esports events were postponed.

Research and Markets specialists have rolled out a forecast for the development of esports until 2025. According to their data, this market will grow by 20% per year on average.

Esports startup Esports Players League has attracted $1 million seed investments. He specializes mostly in mobile disciplines.

Until now, esports has not received stable support from the Russian authorities. Now the first state organization for the development of esports will appear in the country. Among its other tasks is the development of IT and robotics.

Newzoo analysts have made a forecast for the global esports market for 2020-2023. According to their data, this year the segment’s revenue will exceed $1 billion for the first time.

Blizzard lost one of its esports sponsors, Mitsubishi Motors. The company decided to pull its dollars in response to how Blizzard treated Chung ‘blitzchung’ Ng Wai, who openly supported Hong Kong protestors during an official Hearthstone livestream.

The Louis Vuitton fashion house has become a global partner of the League of Legends World Championship. Before that, the brand supported only classic sports tournaments.

Last year, mobile esports titles earned $15.3 billion. In terms of income, they are rapidly approaching desktop gaming disciplines.

The owners of the hyper-casual platform Ready Games raised $5 million in the initial funding round. And the Bitkraft Esports Ventures esports fund invested the most in it.

An esports park will be built in Shanghai, including a stadium for tournaments. NetEase will invest $725 million dollars in the project.

On July 28, the first ever Fortnite World Cup was held. His prize fund was a fabulous $ 30 million. We are figuring out how this will affect the world of esports, together with Roman Dvoryankin, the general manager of the team Virtus.pro .

The loudest and strangest deal of recent times. Mail.Ru The Group has announced a partnership with a certain Modern Pick. The result of the partnership is the transfer of 51% of ESforce esports organization, which owns Mail.Ru Group. The nuance is that the transaction takes place without money, and Modern Pick itself is not a well—known and popular company.