From tabletops to virtual reality, how we play games is changing with the times. In just a few short decades, the world of online gaming has exploded in popularity. Estimated to reach $196 billion in revenue by 2022, it is now considered to be one of the fastest-growing industries on the planet. Increasingly after Covid, several smart marketers are betting big on esports. Keeping the relevance of the same, at The e4m Game On: Gaming Summit, G2 Esports COO Peter Mucha shared how Covid-19 impacted the esports industry and the company.
Mucha firstly clarified that gaming and esports are not exactly the same. “Gaming is the content of the esports industry but not necessarily the same, but it is the biggest niche,” he said.
He further expounded on the growth of the industry: “There are almost 2 million people in the world who are familiar with esports and are interested in it. Why is it so attractive for so many brands? You see that if you see a look into the community. We are talking, most likely about the most attractive target group in the world for almost any brand because the audience is between 10 and 35. And these are the consumers of today and the future. And that’s why many companies and brands have the ambition to be part of the esport industry. I predict that to be the fastest-growing environment in the entertainment industry overall in the next coming years.”
He indicated that big sponsors from traditional sport are now moving into esports. “What you see is about that five years ago, the partners in this industry were very much endemic partners, but that has completely changed over the last five to 10 years already. Now big sponsors are moving in from traditional sports and are doing that with a lot of commitment and budget behind it. And they do that believing it to bw the right way to spend their marketing budgets effectively. What do you see as well their traditional sports clubs are part of this esport industry as well so they are building teams for different leagues as well, so they don’t want to miss that train going forward,” Mucha contended.
According to him, the players are the biggest assets of the industry. “We own the assets; here the players are what makes this industry. We work closely together with league organizers and publishers, and we are present on all platforms. The players are what makes this industry so appealing, So we own something which is the heart and essence of this entire industry. And that makes it interesting for us to be where we are,” he said.
Mucha shared how despite Covid, G2 Esports continued to grow. Sharing the impact of the pandemic on the company and how it adapted to it, he remarked: “Even though we saw some impacts of Covid we could grow our business so much that this is really, really incredible. However, we had to change almost everything as well as the way we were. We were, to a certain extent, quite privileged because our business is fully digital, and the issues other more old fashioned industries have is the fact that they never digitalized their business. So we were already in an advanced status in terms of being prepared for a digital environment. We had some kind of footprint in the offline environment as well. And we were able to move that from offline to online in order to copy, fully on track in terms of our marketing execution,” he revealed.
Moreover, Mucha revealed that while partners that the company works with, were much slower in terms of commitments for budgets to be spent in 2020, it didn’t impact the finances. “Clients couldn’t see what the impact of Covid would be and therefore, of course, they were more cautious before they made a decision for big money investment into anything.
“Thankfully, we only have a delay, we didn’t see any kind of reduction in spend or anything in terms of reduction of initiatives,” he added.
Furthermore, the COO remarked, “We could increase our starting revenue by 75%. And ultimately, an increase in our end work. You could see what was flat in the industry, we could increase our total business by 45%. So very happy that this is the case for us.”
Lastly, Mucha revealed that the company will maintain the use of established new formats like online events and online production as it sees many advantages in it. “That is a good thing to do as it saves a lot of money. That money can be spent in a better way, instead of travelling. And that’s why I think we should do our best to keep those new formats alive. We have been able to, with that concept, have all our deliverables fulfilled and we could significantly grow our audience. I think we shouldn’t go back to the way it was before; we have learned that the way we manage the business right now with the adaptation has made it work even better than it was before,” he stated.
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