Is Live Gaming Set to Take Center Stage?

The way we entertain ourselves is changing. Increasingly, individuals around the globe are turning to technology when they’re bored or in need of excitement, with our smartphones, laptops, and other devices providing us with hours of unparalleled fun.

Where once television revolutionized the way we occupied our hours, now we have a whole host of options to go alongside it, from social media through to the thousands of different apps we can download onto our smartphones. So too do we have computer and video games to immerse us in new and thrilling worlds.  

The latter has spawned a secondary form of entertainment too, in the form of live gaming. Not only do we now enjoy playing these offerings ourselves, but watching other people tackle them as well, especially those who have a particular talent for the pastime.

There are even whispers that live gaming could soon take center stage at some of the world’s most important and widely watched events, from the Olympics to Glastonbury. But is there any truth to these rumors, or are they just wishful thinking from fans of the entertainment?

A huge global audience

For those who’ve never experienced it before, your first time watching an individual game live may prove gripping and exciting. The thrill of seeing the action play out on screen as a spectator is entirely different from that which you feel when you’re behind the controls, but it's no less enthralling for it.

This, perhaps, is why so many people tune into and attend live gaming events, with millions of us around the world now acting as spectators. Drawing huge audiences, the biggest contests often combine high-level play with witty and entertaining commentary and can attract some incredibly lucrative sponsorship deals from forward-thinking brands who are keen to get in on the action.

Live entertainment as a whole is booming in popularity, with more niche sectors such as live casino even providing another prime example. Easily accessible from sites like Genesis Casino on your mobile, it allows players from around the world to observe real-time gambling action and to join in on the fun by taking a place at the table and placing bets.    

This same immersive experience is offered by live gaming in the form of esports, and while viewers may not actively play, they’re similarly able to bet on the exciting on-screen action. What this does is allow them to join in the thrill of playing, but in an entirely new and novel way, and at a level which most amateur gamers could only dream of attaining.

Joining the mainstream

However, while esports is becoming increasingly popular, it continues to have a niche audience which consists mainly of gamers. In order to truly enter the mainstream, it must thus have access to a less restrictive viewership, hence its ambitions to fuse itself to some of the most popular events from around the world.

For example, there have long been discussions that those at the highest echelons of the sport have their eye on a place at the Olympics. If this could be achieved, it would instantly catapult esports into the global mainstream, gaining it millions more viewers and an even higher profile than it already enjoys.

Other rumors have suggested that it may aim to graft itself onto other popular events, including large festivals like Glastonbury (other forms of entertainment do already feature at this musical extravaganza). Indeed, given esports’ current audience – which numbers in the millions – this does not seem like a mere pipedream, but something which, given a little more time, could well become a reality.

When it comes to expanding its audience reach, live gaming could do worse than to try and gain entry into some of the most popular events around. With a little more time to nurture its viewership and raise its profile, it seems genuinely possible that it could achieve such a goal, instantly elevating itself to the highest echelons of popular entertainment.