Fortnite vs. Football: How Esports Needs to Change to Satisfy Spectators
Esports could soon outpace traditional sports, but here’s what needs to change before that can happen
A few weeks ago,16-year-old Kyle Giersdorf claimed a $3,000,000 prize in the first Fortnite championship in front of a sold-out audience at New York’s Arthur Ashe Stadium. To put this in perspective, tennis veteran Novak Djokovic secured $2,850,000 for winning the 145th Wimbledon Championships two weeks prior. Emerging from obscurity only a few years ago, esports is quickly challenging the idea of spectator sports as we know it. Even established “traditional” sports clubs are hedging their bets with esports teams. It’s becoming clear that esports will, at some point, usurp the current sports establishment. The question is when and how.
Why is esports doing so well? For most of the over-40 crowd, this still seems a mystery. We don’t understand who would watch this or how. But still, the audience grows. Here’s why:
The kids are doing it: The most important force behind esports are the fans — many of whom play the games themselves. Much of sports viewership is largely driven by people who played the sport, in some form, at some point. By playing it, we understand the difficulty and strategies. The audience…
