The rise of eSports: a whole new sport born from technology (Part 2)

This is data from eSportsearning.com. All sources listed above are properly cited.

In Poland, they organized an “Olympics eSports”, bringing together teams from all over the world. The giant Spodec Stadium located in Katowice is filled with sounds coming from countless games and from tens of thousands of gamers. It is also a great opportunity for sponsors, software and hardware developers to demonstrate their latest products. Everyone wants to touch a part of the gold mine is getting richer.

In the past, the event lasted only for 3 weekends, but then the event had to be divided into two weekends to suffice. Record continuously broken: 173,500 people flock to Spodec to watch live, more than 46 million people watch online, an increase of 35% compared to the previous organization (the parameter from the fifth Katowice hosted the IEM final because Intel sponsors).

In 2015, the transmission company The Modern Times Group acquired ESL, the eSports company behind IEM, for $ 87 million. A huge contract.

ESL broadcasts its tournament on Twitch, the world’s largest game streaming platform. In 2014, just 3 years after founding Twitch, the platform was acquired by Amazon for $ 970 million.

ESL founder Ralph Reichart did not believe his eyes when he saw the sight of hundreds of thousands of young eyes watching every small move on the big screen. His father, his peers did not believe in the future of esports, when he applied for a license to build Spodec. They must have thought otherwise.

Katowice city is now world famous through the huge eSports tournament IEM. “We have a wonderful stadium called Spodec, our city is changing. In the old days, we only knew about mining, now we want this place to be an entertainment city. It’s the electric game itself.” Death will help us to do that.”