Turkey’s booming eSports market
Posted in Corporate, M&A and securities Technology and innovation Compliance
While people argue whether eSports, i.e., competitive and organized video gaming, is actually a sport, the industry is expected to grow by more than US$1bn in revenue this year, which is a 26.4 percent boost from 2018. It is predicted that the industry will keep growing. To give an example, the 2018 finale of the League of Legends (LOL) World Championship, which has approximately 100m monthly players, was viewed by more than 200m people and the total number of hours of LOL views on streaming sites is over one bn. In the first quarter of 2019, the amount of prizes won at eSports competitions totalled nearly US$32.8m6.
The approach to eSports and online gaming is no different in Turkey. Turkey has the youngest population compared to countries in the European Union7 and half of the population is under 32. These figures, as well as statistics regarding the rise of eSports in Turkey, make the country very enticing for eSports investments.