A sport only needs three things to exist: competition, tournaments, and spectators–a direct catalyst to the rise to prominence of eSports.

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Invading the Competitive Space

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Since the inception of video games, many proud individuals have angrily mashed controllers and ruined friendships over bragging rights and high scores. In 1980, Atari hosted a Space Invaders tournament where 10,000 people gathered to sit at computers and zap aliens. In 1988, Netrek–the first team-based internet game–was made, and players could forgo the trip to the arcade to find competition. Suddenly, they had opponents from the house down the street–or on the other side of the world.

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An Interactive Competition

Having combined years of ongoing advancements in hardware and connections with technology that allowed gamers to talk to one another, online gaming took over the world.The on-demand competition and interaction were primary contributors to the online gaming boom–but what accounts for the surge in eSports spectators? Well, viewing audiences were drawn to organized leagues, professional players, and streamed competitions they could view anywhere. Spectators can even attend events at offline venues.

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The Twitch Factor

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For its rousing success, eSports owes a lot to Twitch; a platform where people from all over the world watch ‘streamers’ play video games. As the largest live streaming platform in the US,Twitch was purchased by Amazon for approximately $1 billion in 2014 to the dismay of some business analysts. Twitch’s 5 million viewers (who spend 106 minutes per day watching live gaming on the platform) rank higher than networks like CNN, making Amazon’s investment decision a success.

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