Talking about 5G | The expanding e-sports market and the impact of 5G

Latest update time：2021-09-03 12:35

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Consumers in more than 20 countries can now access 5G speeds through smartphones. In the next few years, standardization will pave the way for massive throughput, better low latency, and availability, which are expected to bring the benefits of 5G to many new industries and applications. In order for enterprises to benefit from it, the 5G ecosystem must reduce risks at the component level in areas such as extending millimeter wave deployment, thermal management, optimizing device area, and extending battery life.

Talking about 5G, a 5G topic in each issue!

E-sports has begun to attract widespread attention around the world. E-sports is a competitive sport that uses computer games, TV games, and smartphone games, and its development has now expanded to a global scale. This article explains the present and future of e-sports from the perspectives of the global market size, the overview of each country, and the communication environment such as 5G that promotes the popularization of e-sports.

Esports that spans countries, cultures and industries

The United States held early e-sports events such as competitive shooting competitions in the 1970s.

Do you know the term "LAN party"?

A LAN party is a party where multiple players gather at a friend's or acquaintance's house with their own computers and monitors to enjoy competitive games via a LAN (local area network). LAN parties began in the United States in the 1990s when computers and the Internet became popular, and they have had an important impact on the development of e-sports.

E-sports is the abbreviation of "electronic sports". It has gradually developed from a small-scale LAN party event to a large-scale event that gathers spectators. The scene of enjoying the fun of games in front of the TV screen in the past has evolved into a form in which players from all over the world connect online and tens of millions of people watch the game. In large-scale competitions, it is not uncommon for multiple sports brand companies to sponsor and reward the winners with high bonuses.

In 2018, when the news reported that e-sports would be included as an official Olympic event, the popularity of e-sports soared.

While the recognition of gaming as a sport has sparked controversy, e-sports is gaining popularity around the world as a diverse sport that is not limited by physical characteristics, gender, or disability. In the United States, e-sports practitioners are considered athletes, and some states have included e-sports in high school courses.

The reaction and thinking abilities required by e-sports transcend national, cultural, and industry boundaries, and have received widespread attention. They are expected to be applied in fields such as medicine and welfare through rehabilitation treatment.

Global eSports Market Size and Country Overview

In 2018, the global market size of e-sports was US$900 million (approximately 90 billion yen), and it is expected to grow to US$1.6 billion (approximately 160 billion yen) by 2021 [Newzoo survey data, September 2019]. Most of the revenue comes from sponsorship fees, advertising, broadcasting rights, ticket sales, and merchandise sales.

By country and region, North America (the United States and Canada) dominates the market with nearly 40% of revenue, followed by China, South Korea, and other Asian countries.

Let us now take a look at the overview of these countries.

North America: Committed to cultivating professional players

As the world's largest e-sports power, the scale of e-sports in the United States is astonishing.

For example, the total prize money for the 2019 World Championship of a popular game was as high as 30 million US dollars (about 3 billion yen). 40 million players from all over the world participated in the competition. Among them, a 16-year-old American boy won the championship prize of 3 million US dollars in the competition, which caused a huge sensation.

For example, the final of another popular game attracted about 40,000 viewers, and it is estimated that about 27 million people watched the live broadcast of the game online.

All of this is thanks to the world's largest professional e-sports organization, which was established in 2002 and actively organizes and broadcasts online competitions, contributing to the popularization of e-sports. In 2013, the government also began to issue professional athlete visas to gamers, and educational institutions such as universities and high schools have also opened e-sports courses and established scholarship systems. The main live broadcast platforms are all operated by super-large IT companies in the United States, and North America is expected to continue to lead the market in the future.

China: Mobile eSports shows development momentum

China's e-sports market accounts for about 18% of the global market, second only to the United States. It is worth mentioning that China has 250 million people participating in e-sports, accounting for more than 60% of the world's total (estimated). This is due to the active performance of professional players in international competitions and the strengthening of infrastructure such as e-sports clubs and broadcasting websites in cities such as Shanghai, which aims to become the "global e-sports capital." In addition, with the increase in the number of users of mobile devices (smartphones, etc.), the popularity of mobile e-sports, which is more convenient to operate than computers, is also a major feature of the Chinese e-sports market.

In China, more than half of esports is played on mobile phones. Chinese companies lead the way in mobile esports, publishing mobile games that are used around the world.

South Korea: The earliest to promote e-sports

Compared with the United States, a powerhouse in e-sports, South Korea is considered a developed country in e-sports.

As early as 2000, South Korea established a government-recognized e-sports association and started a registration system for professional players. The following year, South Korea also hosted its first international competition, and its e-sports market has now increased to about 6% of the global market.

In 2018, under the leadership of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, South Korea also opened a facility to introduce the history of Korean e-sports. While being a developed country in e-sports, it also established its unique status as a holy land.

Japan: The market is growing rapidly but is still in the development stage

The size of Japan's e-sports market reached approximately 5 billion yen in 2018 and is expected to exceed 8.5 billion yen by 2021. However, this size accounts for less than 1% of the global market and is still in the development stage.

This is because e-sports involves issues such as legal amendments, for example, high prize money may violate the gift description law and gambling crime.

On the other hand, the popularity of e-sports and the construction of infrastructure in Japan are accelerating. In October 2019, the e-sports championship was held in Ibaraki Prefecture for the first time as a national sports competition, and cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya have also opened e-sports facilities one after another.

When predicting the future of e-sports, we cannot ignore the changes in lifestyle and values brought about by the new coronavirus.

Although events were forced to be cancelled, the sales of game consoles and game software have also increased significantly as people have spent more time at home. The number of live broadcasts has also increased. Concepts such as social distance have now become the new normal. In the future, the status of e-sports, a sport that "does not require face-to-face confrontation", will become more and more prominent.

The impact of communication environment and 5G on eSports

The number of people participating in e-sports has reached 130 million, which is higher than the number of people participating in tennis, and the number of people watching the games is about 400 million, which is higher than the entire population of the United States.

Players compete in remote locations, with tens of millions of people around the world watching the games. Since it is an online competition, the communication environment is the most important for e-sports.

In fact, it is not uncommon for matches to be interrupted due to unstable communications causing delays in playing and watching.

5G (fifth-generation mobile communication system) is expected to break this situation and play a huge role in promoting the popularization of e-sports.

5G, which can achieve "high speed, large capacity", "low latency" and "multiple connections", will allow many players to play games simultaneously without any pressure, and can also avoid failures of LAN and other equipment. In addition, 5G is also expected to promote the popularization of "cloud gaming", which is processed in the cloud and streamed to mobile phones or game consoles.

As such, 5G will benefit broadcasting platforms and streaming media that need to process large amounts of data by virtue of its advantage in the total amount of data that can be exchanged per second (bps). On the other hand, low latency is also very important for gamers. The time difference after inputting a command is the key to determining the outcome of a match. Low latency is managed by the ping value, which indicates the speed from sending data to receiving a response. 5G also has excellent performance in terms of ping value, and also uses technology (network slicing) to achieve low latency when playing games and large capacity when playing online.

It is speculated that if 5G can penetrate from the players' devices all the way to the servers of suppliers and platform providers, the world of e-sports will become more unimpeded, and AR and VR will become closer to life.

In Japan, major telecommunications companies have also taken 5G as an opportunity to enter the e-sports market. It is an indisputable fact that 5G is promoting the development of e-sports. Given the preparation of the communication environment, the expansion of the global market scale, and the new normal of society, it can be said that the potential of e-sports will be huge.

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Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is a global leader in the design, manufacture and sale of ceramic-based passive electronic components and solutions, communication modules and power modules. Murata is committed to developing advanced electronic materials and leading-edge multifunctional and high-density modules. The company has employees and manufacturing sites around the world.

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