The Market
What is competitive gaming?
There are a number of useful facts and figures to consider when working out the potential value of this market and why you should be involved. Several of these are listed below and highlight just how large and dynamic competitive gaming is.
- There are over 14 million people playing the top 5 competitive FPS titles across the world. These being Counterstrike 1.6, Counterstrike:Source, Battlefield 2, Call of Duty 2 and Wolfenstein Enemy Territory.
- Xfire, a community tool for viewing friends and what games they are playing has over 4 million registered users and on average records over 1 million minutes of game time per day for the above mentioned titles.
- 83 countries took part in major international competitive gaming events in 2005 and over $2 Million was given out in prize money during that year. 2006 topped the $3 Million prize fund mark for major events with more gamers than ever before getting involved.
- The UK has in excess of 200,000 competitive gamers competing at all levels of competition across a variety of titles.
- Competitive gaming in South Korea is the most developed in the World with dedicated channels and TV leagues for Blizzard's Starcraft and Warcraft 3 titles.
- In 2005 the CPL, a leading PC tournament organiser, launched a $1 Million World Tour that took in 8 countries and had its Grand Finals showcased on MTV in Times Square, New York. The MLG did a similar thing for Console tournaments across US cities in 2006.
- The top 2 individual gamers from 2005 each walked away with just under $250,000 after competing in The CPL 2005 World Tour.
- The MLG has signed several of its top teams and individuals to multi-year contracts with the top teams signing $1 Million contracts and individuals $250,000 contracts.
- 2007 will see the launch of the Championship Gaming Series backed by DirectTV and the Fox Network. They aim to bring competitive videogaming to over 100 Million homes worldwide after signing deals with media partners including BSkyB.
- The new generation of consoles are allowing more and more people to get involved and are raising the profile of gaming across the globe.