China's e-sport market revenue to jump nearly 22% annually
China’s e-sport market revenue is set to expand 21.5 percent annually amid a huge pool of gamers, rising sales of mobile game gadgets and professional tournaments offering big prize money, said China Insights Consultancy today.
The market revenue is expected at 78.6 billion yuan (US$12.5 billion) in 2018, up from 64.7 billion yuan last year, with match advertising and sponsorship, game broadcasting, professional gadgets and e-commerce services being major contributors, said CIC.
However, mobile e-sport market is predicted to soar 93.4 percent annually on average between 2015 and 2019, one of the rapidly growing sectors in e-sport.
Smartphone has now become an essential part of the game and e-sport ecosystem, said Peter Wu, founder and chief executive of Black Shark, a startup smartphone brand boasting investors including Xiaomi.
DOTA 2, one of the top MOBA (multilayer online battle arena) games, offered US$37.1 million as total e-sport prize pool in 2017, a record high and 20 times the amount in 2012, according to CIC and the Perfect World.
Xiaomi's CEO Lei Jun (front row left) attends the release of Black Shark, a professional game smartphone brand.
