Fun Facts About the History of eSports

When many people think of eSports, they often think of it as a new form of competitive gaming entertainment. To a certain extent, that is true. 

However, professional eSports competitions have been held since as far back as the early 1970s, around the time the first gaming consoles found their way into people’s homes. 

Other experts and historians will tell you that the true origin of eSports actually dates back to 1958 when the game ‘Tennis for Two’ was released. 

Let’s dive straight in to take a closer look at several interesting and fun facts about the history of eSports, from its humble beginnings to the multi-billion dollar industry it is today.

From the Early Days to the Present

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Before we understand how eSports has become as huge as it is today, we must first go back to those early days. The first ‘proper’ video game tournaments started getting attention in 1980 when 10,000 gamers competed in a nationwide Space Invaders tournament at video arcades across the United States. 

Similar events involving games like Donkey Kong, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Golden Eye occurred over the next 15 years. Don’t forget that this was long before competitive video game tournaments were played over the internet. 

It wasn’t until the late 1990s that the internet would help take eSports or competitive video gaming to a broader audience when millions of online viewers tuned in to watch the now iconic Starcraft 2 tourney. 

Things really started to take off in the 2000s when bigger eSports tournaments and leagues started popping up. Certain major events also started being televised, which took spectatorship to a whole new level, and the popularity of eSports has continued to grow exponentially ever since. 

Live streaming sites like Twitch helped propel eSports even further. Competition prize money got bigger, thanks to sponsorship deals, and players at the top of their game were now considered ‘athletes.’ 

Viewers could now watch the action in person at some of the world’s biggest stadiums or tune in and watch from their preferred device at various eSports streaming sites. 

Today, eSports is studied in colleges and universities, and major eSports events are taking place regularly on almost every continent. Those who never took eSports seriously only have to look at how much revenue the industry generates annually to realise how mainstream professional eSports has become. 

Fun Facts About the History of eSports

Those who explore the history of eSports will be able to tell you some amazing stories and facts about the exciting world of eSports. Some of the most fun and interesting facts they are likely to point out are the following:

• Although the origins of eSports date back to 1958, most experts will tell you that the world’s first true eSports tournament was called the Intergalactic Spacewar! Olympics, which involved 24 players battling it out playing Spacewar!, was in 1972 at Stanford University
• The first eSports tournament to attract 10 participants took place in 1980 and involved the Space Invaders game
• In the early 80s in the US, a handful of video game tournaments were broadcast on television for the first time
• Konami and Centuri hosted video game tournaments where over a million players from North America and Japan took part, playing the 1984 game Track & Field
• Hit games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter took competitive video game tournaments to the next level
• The other things that also helped with the rise in popularity of eSports were faster internet speeds, live streaming capabilities, advancements in cutting-edge home computing and mobile phone technology, and triple-A titles being made by the world’s biggest game development studios
• The prize money at today’s biggest eSports tournaments can reach several million dollars (up to $45 million)
• Fully licensed and regulated iGaming websites also now accept wagers on today’s biggest eSports events

Is It True That You Can Bet on eSports?

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Yes. As mentioned above, you can now bet on today’s biggest eSports events at hundreds of fully licensed and regulated online sports betting sites, provided you are of legal age in your country to place a real money wager online. 

In Canada, for example, in many of the provinces, you generally have to be at least 19 to bet on eSports events. Still, it’s 21 if you live in Michigan, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other US states where online sports betting is legally permitted. 

In most other countries, you can bet on eSports from the age of 18. In other words, always check you are of legal age before trying to sign up anywhere. 

Conclusion

As you can see, eSports has a long and colorful history and has massively evolved since those early days. The people who organized eSports tournaments, watched them, and participated in them in the early years could never have imagined how much the industry would evolve. 

Although we can’t say with any degree of certainty about exactly how the professional world of eSports might evolve over the coming years, one thing we can say for sure is that it’s definitely here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future anyway.  

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