A few decades ago, eSports were a niche modality that attracted only a few dozen enthusiasts. This has completely changed and the potential of this modality in Brazil is one of the most promising on the planet.
From the rising national game market to the large number of tournaments taking place in the country, there are several factors that make Brazilians optimistic for the future of the sector.
Modest origins before explosive growth
Today, eSports are one of the biggest sports phenomena in the world in relation to the public and generation of national and international income, but the interesting history of the sector started in a modest way.
It all started in the United States in 1972 when several Stanford University students came together to create the first eSports event in history.
Called “Intergalactic Spacewar! Olympics ”(Spacewar Intergalactic Olympics), the competition featured around 20 people in all and solo winner Bruce Baumgart and winning duo Slim Tovar and Robert E. Maas each won a one-year subscription to Rolling Stone magazine .
Less than a decade later, producer Atari held the Space Invaders Championship. The first official eSports tournament in history, the event helped to increase the popularity of the sport in the USA and had more than 10,000 North American participants.
After that event, the eSports audience grew relatively steadily as more and more companies created their own competitions. The next big leap would come only after about three decades with the launch of the Twitch platform – in 2011.
Through Twitch, fans from all over the planet were able to start following their favorite tournaments and players and the platform became the main global meeting point for hundreds of millions of enthusiasts, having even been purchased by Amazon in 2014 after a 970 million dollars deal.
In addition, the numbers of the global views of the broadcasts have begun to awaken the potential of several regions and several new factors are causing the number of eSports fans to grow more and more.
Possibility of growth driven by the games market and several tournaments
In addition to the number of Twitch views in Brazil, which continue to grow and show the interest of the national population in games, other factors show the growth in the number of enthusiasts here are the national game market and the number of tournaments in Brazilian territory.
According to data from PwC consultancy presented in its 19th Global Entertainment Survey and released by Exame magazine, the national game market is expected to grow by an average of 5.3% by 2022.
In 2019, the gaming sector in the country earned more than 1.5 billion dollars, being the 13th in the global scale and leader in Latin America. As in the international market, the biggest highlight in the national market is the mobile games sector and the projected revenue for them in 2022 is 878 million dollars.
Adding console and PC games to mobile games, the total turnover of digital games in Brazil for 2022 is estimated at more than 1.75 billion dollars, a growth of more than 250 million dollars.
The second encouraging data in relation to the Brazilian market was released through the 2nd Brazilian Digital Games Industry Census, a study that identified more than 375 digital game developers in the country in 2020, a number that represents a growth of more than 180% in relation to the first edition of the census, which had been held in 2014.
National tournaments are also on the rise: the Brazilian League of Legends Championship (CBLoL) is one of the largest in the world and the title of the competition, which also defines who will represent the country in the World of League of Legends. The tournament attracts thousands of competitors attending each of the events and millions of fans also through official broadcasts.
In fact, one of the most prominent Brazilian teams is sponsored by Flamengo and more and more soccer teams have turned to digital sports with their own teams.
As it could not be otherwise, the national championship of Free Fire, one of the most popular mobile games in the country and in the world, has also gained more and more prominence and should grow more in the coming years.
In addition to these competitions, national PES and Fifa, Counter-Strike and Rainbow Six tournaments are increasingly growing in number of participants and enthusiasts, who follow the matches from their homes. In addition, the national public also has broadcasts of international tournaments on traditional networks.
ESport’s future in the country looks good – bets should grow together
With all these positive indicators, ranging from national interest in games to enthusiasm in relation to national and international competitions, the future of eSports in Brazil is very promising and we can say that our country is among those that will have the most growth in the world.
The various sports betting companies are increasingly focusing on the country with their various products and Brazilian fans should have more and more options to follow their favorite eSports in the coming years.
