How is eSports evolving, what trends will drive competitive games like CS: GO into the future, which is expected to see the sector reach $5 billion in value by 2027? We want to focus on some of the guiding principles that will drive eSports at the international level of events that you can follow on Profilerr. Our expert, Volodymyr Huda, has some key points of the discourse, ranging from post-pandemic expansion to relations with the school world.
In this article
Post-pandemic expansion
It is worth mentioning the pandemic, a topic that has monopolized the attention of the entire globe for a long time. Although initially, it caused incredible damage, it still positively affected eSports’s growth. The competitive segment in this sense is fortunate to be a sustainable, growing sector based on advanced technological solutions.
The imposition of forced isolation and social distancing has led people to look for other means of expression, sociability, and aggregation, such as streaming platforms and digital and virtual media. The inability to go out and practice any other activity away from screens and peripherals has clearly diverted the attention of gamers and enthusiasts to gaming and esports events, thus leading to the increase in demand for both video games and live events. Thus, the growth of the 2020-2021 biennium led not only to a new awareness but also to a strengthening of the fundamentals of the sector, which in 2022 began again with even more decisive momentum. For example, we are talking about such competitions in CS: GO as Cyberathlete Professional League, World Cyber Games, Electronic Sports World Cup, and Intel Extreme Masters.
The stream, the targeted entertainment
As we said at the beginning, esports is not only competition, but it is also and above all a recent decline of the concept of “entertainment”. The aforementioned sudden increase in demand and consumption of products related to gaming and its competitive trickle has begun to arrive from a new type of user, more casual and distinct from the so-called “avid fans”, attracted by the possibility of making up for the absence of physical and sporting events with a different type of entertainment.
The turnover that gravitates around streaming platforms such as YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming is still expanding rapidly, despite Twitch still holding a good 80% of the market, acting as a de facto monopolist. For example, the volume of the US market is 3.5 billion dollars in 2025 a CS: GO streaming segment. Try to imagine the boundless potential of this means of communication for the gaming industry (which already uses streamers, direct, and influencers to communicate its products) and eSport. In the latter case, the transmission of tournaments and events sets in motion an incalculable amount of positive variables for the entire sector.
The birth of new professional figures
For some time, competitive games in various parts of the world have become part of school and university programs, receiving grants and allowing students to receive scholarships. This is because it has been recognized that eSports promotes important values and skills for personality development, such as teamwork, communication, commitment, pressure and stress management, confidence in oneself and one’s partner, sociability, equality, and lack of barriers.
The massive growth of eSports is also creating jobs that didn’t exist before. Now, for example, in the USA, many organizations are not just “teams”, but are born and grow as a real business structure. Most organizations have doctors, social media managers, psychologists, personal trainers, managers, marketing and communications experts, and big data analysts in their organizational chart. In short, even though it’s still early days, the prospects for growth are there no matter what.
In addition, the need to colonize a fundamental market segment such as streaming and mainstream entertainment has also given a decisive impetus to the evolution of “legacy” organizations into true “media companies”. Such state-of-the-art companies boast multipurpose playhouses and follow the mantra “content is king.”
Content production becomes the cornerstone around which the entire growth strategy revolves. This is through streaming channels and community events, clothing lines, merchandise, partnerships, and sponsorships with endemic and non-endemic brands. In short, it’s no longer one team in one title that gains value; This is the name of the company, the recognition of the brand as a whole. Thus, even in Italy, the concepts of eSports and entertainment are interpenetrating.
NFT and eSports
NFT can be considered the last frontier for competitive gaming. The potential is huge and there are already blockchain and NFT-based games. Esports also enjoys another feature: in addition to being already “digital”, its fans are not only gamers but also fans of everything that can be collected.
Also, NFTs have been around in this framework for years, just think of the market surrounding skin trading in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. While entire competitive universes such as CS: GO, VALORANT, DOTA 2, League of Legends, Hearthstone, and Overwatch can create NFT markets within them, they will benefit from massive revenue that will further drive the growth and sustainability of the entire ecosystem, making its one of the richest industries in history.
The trend of the future—eSports becomes pocket-sized
The impressive technological advances of recent years have opened the door to new means of expression and entertainment, including games and their competitive approach. In particular, handheld devices today have a true Triple-A experience: Diablo Immortal “Newborn”, PUBG, Call of Duty: Mobile, and League of Legends Wild Rift are just some of the titles that can stand out on both the quality and content fronts.
In all of this tumultuous market, competitive gaming can be the primary means by which to tap into a virtually limitless and still undefined catchment area. The mobile segment is essentially already colonized by the competitive dimension: just think of the products that already boast a structured and multi-layered eSports scene, such as IP Supercell, PUBG (this year’s Global Invitational prize pool is four million dollars), Call of Duty and practically all games owned by Tencent.
