Blizzard Entertainment scores huge with the debut of its Overwatch League

Blizzard Entertainment, an American video game developer and publisher becomes an epicentre of attention as they leave an imprint by scoring huge with the debut of its Overwatch League. The official esports league for Overwatch players wooed over 10 million viewers in its debut week in January. Blizzard – a division of Activision Blizzard, persists to heavily invest  in the esports market as the entire  industry anticipates that esports will get in sync with traditional sports.

Newzoo the Market researcher,  reported last week that global esports revenues will hike  38 percent to $906 million in 2018 and further elevate  to $1.65 billion by 2021. The number of esports enthusiast fans will grow 15.2 percent from 143 million in 2017 to 165 million in 2018 while the number of occasional viewers will grow from 192 million in 2017 to 215 million in 2018. When the esports enthusiasts reach 250 million by 2021, the occasional viewers will reach approx. 307 million.

However, the current amount of money generated per esports fan is still lower than traditional sports — such as the amount generated per NBA fan. Mike Morhaime, the President of Blizzard, said in an interview with GamesBeat and in a panel at the DICE Summit 2018 elite gaming event that,“We are  just at the beginning of a long road. In the future, the esports market is expected to generate revenues through the sale of sponsorships, media rights, advertising, publisher fees, tickets, and merchandising”, reports Newzoo.