Tag: Esport

Rooter signs up exclusive eSports deal with GodLike

Indian game streaming platform Rooter is now taking a major leap by signing a deal with the country’s most prominent and powerful eSports team GodLike.

The partnership deal will provide Rooter exclusive live streaming rights broadcasted by GodLike for games such as Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), Garena Free Fire, Call of Duty Mobile (CODM) and new forms of live gaming content. This partnership is stated to be the biggest eSports deal in Indian history.

According to a report, interestingly, GodLike also signed an exclusive streaming partnership deal with Loco. The latter, too, was a partnership of unspecified value, and six gamers from GodLike’s roster will now be streaming their BGMI, Free Fire and CODM sessions on Rooter instead.

During the announcement, Rooter said that the partnership is part of the company’s net investment of Rs 100 crore in the Indian esports industry. Also, the partnership between the two entities will not be limited to game streaming, as Rooter will also serve as a sponsor for GodLike in all the upcoming tournaments and events.

Fans can catch the currently active content creators from GodLike on Rooter. They include, ‘Jonathan’ Amaral, Abhijeet ‘Ghatak’ Andhare, Abhishek ‘ZGOD’ Choudhary, Vivek ‘ClutchGod’ Horo, Suraj ‘Neyoo’ Majumdar, and Ashpreet ‘Gill’ Singh.

Sharing his excitement on this partnership, Rooter co-founder and COO Dipesh Agarwal said, “GodLike is one of the most popular teams in the Indian eSports ecosystem and we foresee building a long-term relationship with them. Having their roster of professional gamers as part of our massive community will give the fans tons of exclusive content and a chance to interact with their favourite streamers. This is the biggest deal ever signed in India’s esports ecosystem, and by joining forces with GodLike, we look forward to building an enormous and competitive community of streamers and influencers on our platform.”

Further Godlike eSport director Amar Sanjay Chandgude said, “We are thrilled to partner with the country’s most popular game streaming platform. The speed of innovation and the incredible gaming experience Rooter offers reaffirms its commitment to scale eSports in India. GodLike eSports is known for exploring and nurturing gaming talent across India. They have created India’s leading teams in Bgmi, Free Fire and Codm. The team is on a mission to build the most successful eSports ecosystem the world has ever witnessed.”

May 26, 2022
Esports enthusiasts will grow to 318 million in 2025: Newzoo Report

Mumbai: The number of esports enthusiasts will grow to 318 million in 2025, with a CAGR of plus 8.1 per cent during the period 2020-2025. In 2025, the total audience will surpass 640 million, according to Newzoo’s annual report titled ‘Global Esports & Live Streaming Market Report.’ The report presents key trends, market sizing and forecasts of esports across the globe, with a special focus on mobile esports, blockchain and co-streaming.

Esports is growing enormously across the world! It is an industry that combines two of gaming’s most important aspects: playing and watching. Newzoo’s report aims to give a reliable and realistic overview of the current status and future of the live-streaming audience and esports market.

The esport industry operates at the intersection of competitive gaming and game-related live streaming. According to the report, the companies involved in esports and the creators are driving engagement across esports and live streaming alike. However, the report analyses that esports organisations still rely on sponsorship as the primary source of revenue for their business. By the end of 2022, Newzoo expects sponsorship to account for $837.3 million—nearly 60 per cent of global esports revenues.

It reveals that in 2022, the global esports audience will grow by 8.7 per cent year on year to reach 532 million. Esports enthusiasts—those who watch esports content more than once a month—will account for just over 261 million.

The game’s live-streaming audience reached almost 810 million in 2021 and is expected to reach 1.41 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of plus 16.3 per cent from 2020 to 2025. At the same time, non-gaming content is one of the drivers of massive growth, accounting for up to 21 per cent of the content watched in 2021.

More than 84 percent of users active in non-gaming categories are also active on gaming channels, which means that non-gaming content does not necessarily cannibalise gaming content on these platforms. This is an opportunity for brands that are more familiar with non-gaming content to engage with live-streaming gaming audiences.

Digital and streaming are the two fastest-growing revenue streams for esports, with 2020-2025 CAGRs of 27.2 percent and 24.8 percent, respectively. Growing awareness around digital assets and NFTs will likely boost investment and fan interest in acquiring in-game items of esports IP.

China leads the worldwide esport market

Esports is set to generate nearly $1.38 billion in revenues by the end of 2022. China will generate nearly a third of worldwide esports revenues. Southeast Asia, Central Southern Asia, and Latin America are the fastest-growing regions, with 2020-2025 CAGRs above 27.6 percent, 23.4 percent, and 19 percent, respectively. Global esports revenues will exceed $1.86 billion by 2025, representing a healthy CAGR of above 13.4 percent.

At the same time, PC esports titles dominate developed markets such as North America, Europe, China, South Korea, and Japan. Mobile esports titles dominate emerging markets like Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Southeast Asia, and India

Twitch leads the esport live-streaming

According to the report, Twitch was the most popular games live-streaming platform in the West in 2021, seeing a 26 percent year-on-year increase with nearly 20 billion live gaming hours watched. YouTube Gaming was the second largest, with 4.7 billion live gaming hours watched.

Brands are moving towards co-streaming

The report also reveals that co-streaming is increasingly becoming part of brands’ strategy to provide non-gaming content to the gaming community. Recently, Netflix, the NBA, and Formula 1 have partnered with streamers to expand their distribution channels for content among gamers.

April 20, 2022
eSports viewers to cross 800 mn globally by ’22; India’s share minor

MUMBAI: In a new research, the UK-based Juniper Research has forecasted that unique viewers of eSports (competitive playing of video games) and Let’s Plays content (tutorials and talk-throughs of game content) will reach 858 million by 2022, up from 630 million this year with the Indian sub-continent too being a minority contributor.

The largest driver and most significant revenue source of the eSports industry has been the use of advertising and sponsorship deals.

Juniper said that advertising spend will dominate in terms of revenues and spend (accounting for 50 per cent in 2022), with this currently the preferred monetisation strategy. As more non-endemic advertisers come on board, this will only strengthen with a greater number of brands seeking to take advantage of a rapidly growing audience, the report explained.

The unique viewers forcast has been split by eight key regions, which include North America, Latin America, West Europe, Central and East Europe, Far East and China, the Indian sub-continent, Rest of Asia Pacific and Africa & Middle east. The region which contributes the biggest is Far East and China.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.

The report highlighted that instead of having sponsorships from more traditional players in the market such as NVIDIA, the past year has seen increased prevalence of non-endemic advertisers, including brands such as Lynx, Gazprom, Visa, Xfinity, T-Mobile, Taco Bell and Mountain Dew. Juniper believed that this has grown purely due to the audience size and scale seen at major tournaments.

“While some brands show links to traditional gaming culture, i.e food and drink brands, others are more commonly associated with traditional sports sponsorship, ie Gazprom, and their branching into eSports shows belief that this will also become a major sporting industry,” the report stated, adding, “The issue is that eSports has been a volatile industry for a number of years, having previously had periods of growth and interest. In the mid 2000s, for example, where hype spiked, before furore around the market died down, only to be rejuvenated from 2010 onwards.”

Meanwhile, eSports arrived in the Indian sub-continent later than other western countries and also regions in Asia like China. However, it has been announced as a medal event in 2022 Asian Games, which is a testimony to its rapid growth in this part of the world.

Indiantelevision.com’s research shows that U Cypher promoted the first multi-gaming platform on TV for eSports competitions in India. It comes under U Sport, which is founded by media tycoon-turned-angel-investor Ronnie Screwvala and his partner Supratik Sen.

U Cypher’s ambition is to present a platform to talented gamers that helps them achieve their maximum potential as well as shape their careers in e-Sports leagues.

When Indiantelevision.com spoke to eSports experts in India, one of them said, “The combined eSports and gaming market is estimated to be Rs 3,900 crore with more than 2,000 teams consistently participating in tournaments across India and abroad with over 500 million players worldwide. The industry has a number of major tournaments throughout the year with viewership in the tens of millions.”

June 7, 2018