With 265 million players worldwide and over 3.5 billion fans, it is no secret that football is the most popular sport in the world. With professional leagues in six continents the level of spectatorship is unlike any other sport.

This audience of course extends to the sports betting sector and it is estimated that in the UK alone, which is home to the Premier League, the most popular professional football league in the world, over £1 billion is spent per year on football betting. However, in the past few years there has been a surge in popularity for virtual football, or ‘eSports’.

Evolution

Various eSports competitions in their current form first began appearing in the mid-to-late noughties. RTS esports games such as Age of Empires, Starcraft, and Warcraft III were popular amongst gamers and the first tournaments with $1 million in prizes began to be seen. Though they had not yet gained much mainstream recognition, the audience was growing. 

With the birth of live-streaming platforms in the early 2010s such as Twitch, it grew even more, and the number of people increased to 45 million streamers. Whilst RTS games and MOBA games still reigned supreme, we started to see the rise of sports games in eSports, namely FIFA, the premier virtual football video game. 

Though the FIFAe World Cup had been held since 2004, then known as the FIFA Interactive World Cup, it was not until the mid-2010s that we started seeing major sponsors take interest in the competitions and teams that took part, and it started gaining some mainstream interest.

But why are they so popular? Well, to begin with, they have the most popular sports video game franchise in the world on their side. In 2021, FIFA reported sales of over 325 million units making it the most successful release in franchise history.

FIFA already had a worldwide player base and like football, with so many millions finding it so entertaining to play it only makes sense that just as many find it entertaining to watch.

It is also much more inclusive and accessible than most other sports. Anyone can become a champion, regardless of their age, gender or physical ability. With the ability to watch via live stream for free from the comfort of your own home it is also easier to watch than any other sport. 

The audience has grown exponentially in a relatively short space of time and in 2021, 234 million people watched esports events regularly. Statistics are showing that this is continuing to grow year on year by around 10%. We are also seeing a growing number of people betting on eSports. One in five of consumers aged 18-24 in the US, UK, Australia, India, Germany, and Canada are interested in betting on esports. 

Live audiences are also huge in football eSports. The FIFA eWorld Cup 2019 that was played and broadcast live from London’s O2 stadium had thousands of spectators filling out the venue. 

With such a growing audience we are now seeing more and more major sponsors get involved in the scene. With a representing partner of EA Sports, the video game publisher for FIFA, the 2022 FIFAe World Cup was sponsored by Adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai, Qatar Airways and VISA. 

A wider audience, stronger sponsors and great figures for tickets sold means that the prize pool for football eSports tournaments have continued to grow. The 2022 World Cup had a massive $500,000 prize pool with eventual winner nicolas99fc from Argentina representing Guild Esports winning a total of $250,000.

The FIFAe Club World Cup, Nations Cup, Premier League and Champions League all have prize pools in the hundreds of thousands, and it is highly likely that we will see this grow into them millions in the next few years as interest continues to grow.

Some of the biggest football clubs in the world now even have their own eSports teams. Barcelona, Manchester City and Paris St Germain, three of the biggest European clubs in the world, each have their own eSports team with some of the best FIFA players in the world in their ranks.

The growth of eSports over the last decade or so has been monumental. Few could have predicted just how popular it would become, garnering so much mainstream interest and sponsors.

Football eSports continues to grow every year and with it being so accessible it is likely that eventually it will reach the same numbers that professional sports do in both prize money and viewership. The sky is truly the limit and eSports are certainly in their groove.