Esports in India : Awareness, Motivation and Opportunities

Introduction
Esports commonly refers to the competitive (pro and amateur) video gaming. It refers to
competitive video games across diverse genres, which brings together skilled gamers from
around the world to compete, which in turn is viewed from every corner of the globe. It is
defined as “recreational activity involving competition using mental and physical abilities in a
virtual online environment similar to the reality” and includes “various competitions and
leagues involving network games” by Korea e-Sports Association (Lee, An, & Lee, 2014).
Esports are commonly organized around specific genres of games, such as multiplayer
online battle arenas (e.g. League of Legends, Dota 2), first-person shooters (e.g. Counter-
Strike: Global Offensive), real time strategy (e.g. Starcraft 2), collectible card games (e.g.
Hearthstone) or sports games (e.g. FIFA-series), therefore they form many sub-cultures
within esports, in the same way that “traditional” sports do. Online Gaming has shown a
towering growth, in the past few years. Today competitive professional gaming, also known as
esports, is a soon-to-be $1 billion dollar industry, championships are watched live by tens of
millions of people, and their potential Olympic debut is on the horizon. In competitions around
the globe, video game players compete in e-sports tournaments in teams or individually. They
compete in a variety of games, including Madden NFL, Fortnite, Dota 2, and others. Along the
way, players can make a nice living just by being among the top video game players in the
world.
According to the NASCOM report, gaming industry has been growing at almost 30% a year
with more than 300 gaming companies in India KPMG and Google’s recently released report
titled “Online Gaming In India: Reaching a new pinnacle” revealed that online gamers market
in India currently projected to 90 million USD at the end of 2016 is estimated to grow into a 1
Billion USD market by 2021. With significant growth year-after-year, the esports industry is a
modern day gold rush. Major media networks ESPN, TBS, syfy, and Telemundo all broadcast
esports events , traditional sport leagues like the NHL and the NBA have launched tournaments
and leagues, and owners of NBA and NFL teams have added ownership stakes in esports teams.
In the U.S., over 70 colleges and universities have added varsity esports teams and/or
scholarships for esports, and this year players announced a partnership to bring esports to
19,500 high schools. The numbers clearly show, esports is here to stay. Total revenue for the
global e-sports market will hit $1.1 billion in 2019, representing a 26.7% year-over-year growth
rate compared to the $897.2 million it generated in 2018, says a new study from gaming
researcher newzoo. If e-sports can reach that level, it’ll be the first time the industry has posted
earnings of $1 billion in a single year. According to newzoo, the lion’s share of the proceeds—
$456.7 million—will come by way of sponsorships that see companies paying players and
venues to promote their brands. Media rights will hit $251.3 million this year, followed by
advertising income of $189.2 million. Merchandise and tickets and game publisher fees will
round out the spending with $103.7 million and $95.2 million in earnings, respectively.
Spectating on esports can be superficially seen as a similar activity to spectating on any
sports. Most commonly, esports are being consumed not only by playing but also watching
live streams on the internet, where in addition to watching the event, spectators can
participate in surrounding social interaction, for example, in the form of chat features. As
esports are computer mediated, spectating can never be without computer-mediated
aspects as spectators watching an esport event “live” have to eventually watch events from
a computer output such as a video screen or a monitor. The motivation behind such
humungous participation in esports can be studied through several factors like, the sense
of achievement (advancement, mechanics, competition), the social component (socializing,
relationship, teamwork) and the immersion component (discovery, role-playing,
customization, escapism).
The aim of this thesis, is to study the level of awareness and motivations amongst the Indian
population, regarding esports and identify the growing opportunities as a career in the Esports.

Literature Review
The history of Esports began in the early 1990s, and it became increasingly popular during this
decade, the number of players growing considerably (Jonasson & Thiborg, 2010). The history
of Esports growth from the 1980s into the 21st century had proven an opportunity for
competition organization to exist. However, the industry lacked a legitimate event organizer
capable of sustaining mass participation and competition (Snavely, 2014). Literature on
eSports is still rare and dispersed, and most of this body of literature has focused on the
qualitative documentation of visible phenomenon in tournaments (e.g. Carter and Gibbs,
2013; Cheung and Huang, 2011; Hutchins, 2008; Seo and Jung, 2014; Seo, 2016; Taylor,
2012a, ,b; Wagner, 2006; Witkowski, 2009, 2012). Published quantitative research on the
questions of why people watch eSports or why players wish to attend eSports events is, as
of yet, non-existent. Thus far, only one study has been published on the reasons for
watching eSports (Weiss and Schiele, 2013), and it finds that competition, challenge and
escapism were positively associated with eSports use.