One article even assumed the cancellation for Apex Legends would be a “final blow” to the game’s pro scene. Some have pondered that a dive in revenue<\/a> and tournaments with no audiences would likely destroy the industry’s footprint and any chance at legitimizing itself in the big leagues. While one can appreciate the sentiment, it turns out that esports is proving much more resilient to this crisis than other professional sports, and may be demonstrating the model for weathering a pandemic crisis such as this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The esports industry must see and react to what is an enormous opportunity as the only sport left standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The nature of competitive gaming allows for more flexibility to meet demand while operating remotely, and many events, leagues, and competitions pivoted towards online participation and viewership — two well-known Counter-Strike: Global Offensive leagues, Flashpoint and ESL Pro League, for example. The play-from-home format is what esports was created from in the first place, and the results for viewership in these competitions is booming<\/a> — Counter-Strike itself has also surged to one million concurrent players<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond CS:GO, let’s take a look at the numbers breakdown according to Forbes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n More players means more viewers and audience engagement. Where other traditional sports see a crisis for their operations, the esports industry must see and react to what is an enormous opportunity as the only sport left standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CS:GO Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice attracted one million peak viewers as a digital event<\/p>\n\n\n\n What’s particularly interesting about the esports phenomenon during this time is the crowds and new faces that are flocking to it. One trend we’ve seen is the migration of traditional athletes to online streaming platforms. The NBA and its stars are hosting their own competitions<\/a> and delivering entertaining results for fans of basketball and esports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The industry may be able to sustain its growth rather than cutting back on projections<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even more surprising is that NBA2K games are being broadcasted on television<\/a> in the place of traditional games. Another example is F1’s transition to bringing their racers to the world’s computer screens; backed and promoted by the F1 league itself, racing’s best stars took to Twitch<\/a> to compete in a virtual tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A second trend is the rise of youth and amateurs in esports. Many kids in schools or part of league teams are moving to online gaming to continue social interaction and competition. Parents are beginning to engage with their kids and their esports gameplay in much the same way they do for their traditional sports games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At GYO Score, we’ve taken notice and adjusted our esports analytics platform towards connecting players and parents with interactive esports opportunities. Our recent activation — the Keep Kids Playing<\/a> campaign — is an effort to enable Indiana Soccer’s youth organizations to continue playing with their teammates in esports competitions during the quarantine period. For Indiana alone, this represents 60,000 traditional grass soccer players who now need a way to keep connected to their teammates and their coaches, and we see esports as that opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last trend we’re seeing is the growth of esports platforms and streaming platforms in the “stay at home economy.” In the past week, Torque Esports<\/a> had a 52% growth in website visits and 38% growth in daily logged-in users. Twitch has also surged in app downloads<\/a> from Greece, Italy, Spain and the US. Additionally, GYO Score itself has seen a near 200% increase in website traffic in the weeks following the outbreak, compared to the previous weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With or without physical events, gamers will continue to compete with one another online and seek out that online content<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n