What Is E-sports?
E-sports, short for “electronic sports,” are video games that are played in a highly organized competitive environment.
E-sports is quickly becoming one of the world’s largest entertainment industries. In 2021, Statista reported that the global e-sport market was valued at just over 1.08 billion U.S. dollars, an almost 50% increase from the previous year.
Sports including the NFL, NBA, Formula One, FIFA, AFL, and EPL are also diversifying into e-sports as a means to ensure their brands remain relevant to future generations of consumers. E-sports is now increasingly being recognized as a sport, with an International Olympic sub-committee recently approving e-sports as a sport for the 2022 Asian Games.
PROFILE OF THE GHANAIAN TERTIARY E SPORTS CONSUMER
A survey carried out by E-sports Africa News (a platform to grow E-sports content and promote E-sports and associated activities on the African continent) on tertiary students about their knowledge and participation in e-sports revealed the following.
With a sample size of 100 randomly selected tertiary students, 92% of the respondents had an idea about e-sports or gaming. The other 8% of the respondents were in the dark regarding e-sports or gaming.
63 respondents of the 92 respondents who affirmed their knowledge about e-sports or gaming were males whiles 26 respondents out of the 92 respondents who affirmed knowledge of e-sport and gaming were females.
When asked how they got to know about e-sports or gaming, 68.87% indicated they got introduced to e-sports and gaming through social media while 29.35% got introduced through their peers and friends.
94% of the respondents on Instagram alluded to a career as an e-sport athlete as something they could consider while 6% had no interest in being an e-sport athlete. Respondents on Twitter when asked if they would consider a career in e-sport had 83% responded in the affirmative whiles 17% responded in the negative
Having a personal gaming console is essential in e-sports or gaming but not everyone can afford one. 63.04% of the respondent did not own their own personal gaming console while 36.96% of respondents owned a personal gaming console.
With reference to the amount of time spent on e-ports or gaming, the survey revealed that 56.52% of respondents spent between one to three hours playing games or e-sports, 14.13% spent between four to 6 hours playing, 8.7% of respondents played for about seven to nine hours while 20.65% of respondents played e-sports once a while.
When asked if any of the respondents would love to play e-sports competitively, 68.48% of the respondents responded in the affirmative whiles 31.52% responded in the negative.
There is definitely a growing interest in e-sports or gaming from the average Ghanaian and it is likely to see rapid growth as an industry in the coming years
For all you e-sport enthusiast and gaming lovers, you can follow the organizations below for up-to-date e-sports information and more.