In recent years, a seismic shift has taken place within the realm of competitive gaming. Esports has become a global phenomenon, capturing the hearts and minds of millions of video game enthusiasts from around the world. With its rapid growth and increasingly mainstream presence, esports has evolved into a highly lucrative industry, challenging traditional sporting events in popularity and viewership.
The scale of this is hard to overestimate. According to a report by industry analysts at Newzoo, the global esports audience reached a remarkable 474 million viewers in 2021, a significant increase of 9.6% compared to the previous year. This surge in viewership can be attributed to several factors, including the proliferation of streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube Gaming, which have provided a readily accessible avenue for fans to watch live esports events and engage with their favorite players.
The growth is shaking up the video game market too, as major companies in the industry are trying to strengthen their position. The most obvious example of this is Microsoft proposing to purchase Activision Blizzard.
With the industry growing, more and more people are beginning to take up esports for either a hobby or in the hopes of making it as a professional gamer. Of course, just as is the case with other competitive vocations like acting, music and traditional physical sports, only a small number of people manage to rise to the top. For those that don’t make it that far, their journey often isn’t wasted, as having artistic talents and physical fitness offer benefits in other careers and in life as a whole.
Is this the same with esports? Let’s take a look.
Directly Transferable Skills
Most esports involve engaging in mythical battles, performing physics-defying stunts, or pushing buttons to do what would normally require a lot of physical power, strength and agility. Since you’re unlikely to find yourself in a magical battle with a wizard and a goblin, or competing in a rocket-powered car football game, it’s unlikely that these skills will be much use to you in the real world.
However, there are some esports where the skills needed for success in the digital realm are the same as those required to perform well in the real world. One of the best examples of this is poker. It is a card game that’s been played for hundreds of years and has enjoyed a significant resurgence in the last few decades. Much of that is thanks to digital poker rooms like PokerStars which, in addition to facilitating competition between players, have created learning resources that cover key elements of how to play poker, such as hand rankings and rules.
Of course, success online does not guarantee success in live games of poker, but the majority of the skills are the same. That includes bankroll management, discipline and calculating the pot odds. The main difference between the two is that in-person poker involves watching for body language tells which can’t be seen behind a computer screen.
Indirectly Transferable Skills
Most employers will tell you that they value something called ‘soft skills’. These are the traits and abilities that are useful in practically every job and in life, and they include time management, teamwork and conflict resolution.
Competing in esports is a great way to build these soft skills because they are required to perform well in a video game as well. While there are some solo competitions, the majority of them involve teamwork in some way, with the most successful esports teams having military precision with their movements and communications.
Video games are also great for promoting creative thinking and problem-solving, as almost every title is designed to present the player with challenges and conundrums that they must find ways to solve.
Physical Fitness
You may think that playing video games at a competitive level is mostly about being permanently parked on your posterior, and you’d be mostly right. However, the elite esports athletes are exactly that – athletes.
Sitting down for a long time and making small repetitive movements on a controller or keyboard places a lot of stress and strain on your body. Therefore, professional esports players have to keep to strict exercise regimes to help them endure this without suffering injuries.
This is beneficial in almost every area of your life. Studies have linked improved physical fitness to everything from better overall quality of life to stronger concentration, meaning if you train and compete in esports like a professional, this can provide benefits outside of your gaming.