Think about it this way: it's the first "sport" that has international
reach outside of soccer. It already has more exposure than baseball,
football, etc. The only thing it doesn't come close to is FIFA World
Cup viewership (3.2 Billion in 2014). The barrier to viewership is
that it only requires internet access to YouTube/Twitch - it's
viewership growth does not require some expensive/exclusive sports
Cable package. Baseball, football, boxing, car racing (largely) etc
are all slowly and painfully dying off. The growth is in MMA and
eSports.
Although you "don't get it" (I don't either, largely), the rest of the
world does. Ignore that at your peril :P
On Sun, Dec 4, 2016 at 12:04 PM, Bill Prince <part15...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Despite the amazing popularity, it still does not draw me.
>
>
> bp
> <part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>
>
> On 12/4/2016 9:47 AM, Josh Reynolds wrote:
>
> Just to put things into perspective, League of Legends is currently the
> largest competitive scene. The 2015 championships, which was a multi-day
> multi-city bracketed event held in several countries, had over 334 million
> viewers (not counting multiple people watching the same stream). The final
> numbers on the 2016 event aren't in yet. Colleges are giving out
> scholarships for this (no joke).
>
> These events sell out places like the Staples center, and world cup
> stadiums. Madison Square Garden may be next year.
>
> On Dec 4, 2016 11:40 AM, "Josh Reynolds" <j...@kyneticwifi.com> wrote:
>>
>> Fun, fame, and profit.
>>
>> Some of these YouTube streamers bring in over 150k a year in advertising
>> revenue. Most of these are young kids (preteen), some actually teenagers.
>>
>> Twitch streamers can bring in several hundreds of thousands a year in
>> stream donations.
>>
>> My oldest (17/m) doesn't watch traditional TV. He's unfamiliar, largely,
>> with commercials. Sports on TV? No way. He watches Hulu, Netflix, but mainly
>> YouTube/twitch.
>>
>> There's a new eSports bar going up here in KC. I bet they end up with more
>> net profit in the first year than the local Buffalo Wild Wings. Mix of bar
>> w/ pub food, TVs streaming games/championships, and actual PCs/gaming
>> (half-hourly charges).
>>
>> On Dec 4, 2016 10:39 AM, "Ken Hohhof" <af...@kwisp.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I was born without the gaming gene, so can someone explain Twitch to me?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I have a customer spending a lot of money (now that harvest is over) for
>>> a speed tier with 5 Mbps of upstream so he can broadcast. Which I see he
>>> does for 12 hours straight.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> What is the appeal? Fun? Fame? Or profit? Does this bring in
>>> advertising money? Enough to make it worthwhile?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> And how does someone stream their game play for 12 hours straight?
>>> Astronaut diapers? Lots of Mountain Dew and Doritos? Or do they get
>>> breaks?
>
>
