My son, Mohd Harfiq, is a man of fast pace. He rides mountain bikes during weekends and play video games for most nights. During week days, he organizes many events, such as youth events and eSport tournaments. I ask how big is the eSport in Malaysia and globally. He said eSport is very big!!

My wife, Datin Azimah, is a keen free-to-play game of Candy Crush. She often “ignores” me for hours when she is playing against other players on the internet.

Recently, a 16-year old, Kyle Giersdorf, won US$3.0 million at the Fortnite World Cup tournament in New York. This week, a team of five teenagers shared US$15.6 million at the Dota 2 International tournament in Shanghai.

According to market research company, SuperData (superdataresearch.com) , the top ten free-to-play game revenue for 2018  were as follows:

No.	Games	Developer	Revenue US$ million
1	Fortnite	Epic Games	2,400
2	Dungeon Fighter	Nexon	1,500
3	League of Legends, Riot Games	Tencent	1,400
4	Pokemon Go	Niantic	1,300
5	Crossfire	Noewiz Games	1,300
6	Honour of Kings	Tencent	1,300
7	Fate/Grand Order	Aniplex	1,200
8	Candy Crush Saga, King	Activision Blizzard	1,100
9	Monster Strike	Mixi	1,000
10	Clash Royale, Supercell	Tencent	900

The other segment of the digital game industry is the premium games market, which was about US$17,800 million in 2018, according to SuperData.

The premium games market by revenue for 2018 was as follows.

No.	Games	Developer	Revenue US$ mill.
1	PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds	Bluehole	1,028
2	FIFA 18	Electronic Art	790
3	Grand Theft Auto V	Take-Two Interactive	628
4	Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII	Activision Blizzard	612
5	Red Dead Redemption 2	Take-Two Interactive	516
6	Call of Duty,WWII	Activision Blizzard	506
7	FIFA 19	Electronic Art	482
8	Monster Hunter, World	Capcom	467
9	Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege	Ubisoft	440
10	Overwatch	Activision Blizzard	429

 The digital games industry is not only for casual gamers like my wife. There are a large number of professional gamers who participate in regional tournaments in the US, Asia and Europe. They can make huge monies by winning major tournaments like the Fortnite World Cup, its first world cup. The Fortnite World Cup is a 3-day tournament with a prize pool of money of US$30 million, shared among 200 final participants. To enter the Fortnite World Cup, about 40 million of Fortnite’s more than 250 million registered players competed in an online qualifying over 10 weeks for the opportunity to come to New York. The 200 finalists, with an average age of 16 years, came from 34 different countries. Fornite is technically a video game, and one with a simple premise. At the start, players are dropped onto an island and shoot at each other until one person is left standing. Each match lasts about 20 minutes and slowly, the numbers wittle down. A storm approaches, making the map smaller and smaller. If a player jumps the island, he/she dies.

Fortnite is so popular that it becomes more than just a game. Today, it’s a social media platform in its own rights, driving pop culture among teenagers, from clothing to dance crazes. It is at the forefront of eSports, competitive online gaming that is attracting more sponsors to sell bigger sponsorships. It is estimated there are more than 250 million users across the globe.

The main attraction is that the winner in the recent Fortnite World Cup, Kyle Diersdorf, won more money than  Egan Bernal, the cyclist who won the Tour of France, a gruelling 21-day riding competition.

eSport have exploded in recent years, helped by the popularity in Asia, which is more than half of world’s 454 million fans. eSports generated more than US$500 million in revenue last year according to consultancy company, New200. Games companies like Epic Games generate most of their income from virtual outfits to kit out their characters. In addition, the team that have grown around the games are also having real-world merchandize. A popular team, 100 Thieves, has created a premium streetwear brand.

Employment of video games industry

According the US Entertainment Software Association (theesa.com), in 2018, the video games industry in the US generated US$43.4 billion. Playing video games has become a leading form of entertainment and an integral part of the American culture. The industry directly employs about 60,000 and indirectly more than 200,000 people. The video games industry employs significant number of people in Japan, South Korea, China and Europe. Tencent of China is the world’s leading games company with millions of players in China. It is also a major investor in Epic Games, the developer/publisher of Fortnite. The video games industry had always been very big in Japan, home of Nintendo and Capcom, initially developers of arcade games.   .    

Tracking the eSport index

An index has been developed to track the performance of global video gaming and eSport segment. Known as the MVIS Global Video Gaming and eSports index, it includes companies with at least 50 per cent (25% for current components of their revenues from video gaming and/or eSports). These companies may include those that develop video games and related software/hardware, streaming services and are involved in eSport events. The MVIS Global Video Gaming & eSports index covers at least 90 per cent of the investable universe. Currently, the MVIS Global Video Gaming & eSports have 25 components.

My conclusion

The video games and eSport industry is likely to go bigger as children, future gamers, are exposed to video games at early age. In our family gatherings, our young members are usually absorbed with their tablets to play simple video games. I am also quite happy that my wife has yet to purchase virtual outfits using my credit card. 

Lastly, this is the only industry that creates teenager millionaires on a regular basis. Hopefully, not every teenager wants to be professional gamers at the expense of doctors and engineers!