Thread by @Frank_Supercell, I'd love to get a glimpse where the esports market will be [...]

I'd love to get a glimpse where the esports market will be in 10-20 years from now. The current situation is fairly interesting. A small collection of curious facts and information snippets. A thread.

(With a hint of my thinking around Brawl esports)

#esports #gaming

I'd love to get a glimpse where the esports market will be in 10-20 years from now. The current situation is fairly interesting. A small collection of curious facts and information snippets. A thread. (With a hint of my thinking around Brawl esports) #esports #gaming

The majority of esports organizations today - despite decent valuations and revenue, don't turn out a profit. This isn't exactly uncommon for start-up businesses but still curious. Leena Xu ( @TSM) was quoted that Team SoloMid is the only profitable esports organization today.

There is very little public information available since most of the companies aren't public and have no connection to public companies. However, one of the reasons brought up regularly is the fact that player salaries for some titles are seemingly inflated (ex. CS:GO).

The biggest esport in the world is arguably League of Legends. Player salaries are highest in the LCS (North America) with an annual average of 410K USD. However, these numbers can be misleading since supestars can receive higher salaries.

Example: LCK (Korea) 2019 survey

Average: 175M Won (~155K USD)

High: 500M Won+ (~444K USD+)

Low: 20M Won (~18K USD)

More than 60% of all placers in the LCK survey earned between 18-89K USD, more than 37% made 18-44K USD.

Yes. Averages can be misleading.

How about other esports than League?

It's really the wild west and it depends on the game. Basic salary averages x-game are in the ballpark of 12K USD to 48K USD per year.

Activision Blizzard's OWL and CDL minimum salaries are guaranteed at 50K USD/year + benefits.

In DOTA2 which has the highest prize pools in esports as part of their "The Interntional" annual event, salaries have a big range based on a Forbes report.

Small orgs pay 6-12K USD/year, players who play on the highest level range from 24K USD (beginner) to 420K USD (superstar).

Franchise leagues require teams to buy-in. Some can be sold to third parties and potential gain/lose value following the original sale. Examples:

OWL ~$20M

CDL ~$25M

LCS ~$35-40M (original price ~10M USD)

@Forbes releases an annual list of the Top Esports orgs based on their evaluation:

@TSM $410M

@Cloud9 $350M

@TeamLiquid $310M

@FaZeClan $305M

@100Thieves $190M

@GenG $185M

@WeAreEnthusiast $180M

@G2esports $175M

@NRGgg $155M

@T1 $150M

The highest prize pools in 2020 based on the TEO report:

@CSGO $15M

@DOTA2 $9M

@lolesports $8M

@FortniteGame $8M

@CallofDuty $6M

@Rainbow6Game $5M

@overwatchleague $4M

@PUBGEsports $4M

@PlayHearthstone $4M

@RLEsports $3M

Caveat: I am not quite sure how TEO incoroporated some of the prize pools which were initially announced for 2020, ex. the $100M announced by Epic for Fortnite.

@DOTA2 would have crushed everyone else with their $40M community funded prize pool, but the event was moved to 2021.

@PUBGMOBILE will have a prize pool of $14M across the globe - one of the biggest prize pools ever for a mobile game.

Most esports titles haven't announced their 2021 prize pools yet, it will be curious to see how companies react to the uncertainty the year still holds. It's unclear what the CoDM prize pool will be in 2021 - last year the company committed $1M.

Prize Pools are obviously only a part of the cost for companies and companies have a varying degree of support for their competitive communities - examples are the gap between DOTA2 and CSGO's support by Valve or Nintendo's - quote "war on esports, the internet and its own fans."

How does this all feed my thinking about Brawl esports?

Well, I am still optimistic about esports as a whole. It's important for companies to understand why they are doing it (community engagement, give back, marketing?) and I personally believe in sustainability.

It's also important to point out that the cost to operate esports for any game is more than the prize pool. Operating a "small" esports like Brawl Stars can cost $10M and upwards, depending on what you want to get out of it.

We've also made the decision to support grassroots more in 2021 than we've done before. Both, through in-game (esports integration, competitive play improvements, etc.) efforts this year and by supporting 3rd party and community events in a better way - also with prize money.

If you look at the players journey from being a New Player, to becoming a Casual Player, an Enthusiast and eventually a part of our Core community (i.e. the people who are here on Twitter, on Reddit, etc.) - how can we best support our players from moving through these stages?

I understand a lot of our core players and competitive players in general have no love for the Map Maker. However, it is a great way of moving people from being casual players to becoming more engaged with the game - which means an increased chance to become part of the core.

Core players drive esports. About 50% of all CSGO players watch esports, north of that for LoL. To make esports sustainable - for players, organizations and us, we need to support the ecosystem. That starts with grassroots and we're committed to support this effort in 2021.

Sources:
https://www.forbes.ru/biznes/401671-prizovye-do-3-mln-zarplaty-do-35-000-v-mesyac-skolko-zarabatyvayut-v-kibersporte
https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2020/12/05/the-most-valuable-esports-companies-2020/?sh=3af72a7073d0
https://esportsobserver.com/top10-games-2020-total-winnings/
https://www.inputmag.com/gaming/nintendo-has-declared-war-on-e-sports-the-internet-and-its-own-fans

Latest Threads Unrolled: