游戏介绍! 随着传统体育直播的中断，电子竞技会填补空白吗?

专为传统观赏性运动的忠实粉丝准备的, NCAA取消了疯狂三月的消息, NBA暂停了整个赛季, and Major League Baseball was postponing Opening Day provided a particularly jarring signal that incipient shelter-at-home guidelines necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic were turning their world upside down. Even as sports commentators hastened to caution fans that sports didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things—with not just live entertainment, but thousands or possibly millions of lives hanging in the balance—fans wondered what would fill the void, 随着企业关门, 工作机会消失, 社交圈萎缩, and the distant but diverting dramas of playoffs and pennant races and roaring stadium crowds disappeared for the foreseeable future.

此前，美国于3月13日宣布全国进入紧急状态，正式关闭政府, some sports 网works began making desperate attempts to plug holes in their broadcast schedules with replays of “classic” games. 但就在极速开会的时候, 流媒体敬拜, and distance learning initiatives rapidly proliferated to serve the communications needs of a world largely sheltering at home, 大量渴望体育运动的人转向了直播电子竞技. Most visible in the simulated sports world are high-profile NBA 2K tournaments pitting NBA stars against each other in live-streamed faceoffs that have put up massive numbers (live and on-demand), 以及模拟赛车的激增，名人赛车手在NBC的时段获得杆位, 狐狸, 和合同.

数量激增

目前有组织的尖峰, 竞争性在线游戏在2019年广泛报道的电子竞技热潮中脱颖而出, 对2020年增长的预期已经很高了. 研究公司 Arizton咨询，在2020年4月的一份题为 电子竞技市场-全球展望 & 2025年预期, projected that the global audience of “esports enthusiasts” would grow from just over 150 million at the end of 2018 to more than 250 million by the end of 2021, 在同一时间段内，“临时观众”从2亿多增加到3亿. 修改后的估计, 基于3月份以来电竞曝光量的爆炸式增长, 到2022年，观众总数将达到6.79亿, 包括3.63亿业余爱好者和3.16亿爱好者. “COVID-19对电子竞技的影响显而易见, which is definitely increasing its viewership as well as its market share at the expense of traditional sports,亚利桑那州的营销专家萨安托尼·达斯说.

Verizon指出，在疫情爆发后，游戏使用量在高峰时段飙升了75%. 游戏市场领导者Twitch, 这里是许多名人主播的家, 在数小时内创下历史新高, 时间流, 平均同时观看人数, 仅3月份的平均收视率就增长了30%. 在三月上半月到下半月之间, Twitter平台上的电子竞技对话量增长了71%, 据EsportsObserver报道.com. 3月20日, PC游戏市场Steam报告称，该平台的并发用户达到了2000万.

为了应对电子竞技活动前所未有的激增，在5月初，Twitch推出了一款新的 电子目录 帮助粉丝跟踪他们想要关注的所有在线竞技游戏活动.

与此同时, esports leagues announced a flurry of in-person event cancellations and plans to shift their communities to all-online, while studios specializing in large-scale esports delivery rushed to pivot to remote production and at the same time meet rapidly accelerating demand, 其中大部分来自他们现有社区之外.

内幕消息

一些最引人注目的增长发生在模拟赛车领域, which has long supplied a second career of sorts for real-world racing celebrities like NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon and Alex Bowman and Formula 1 stars like Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon. 今年3月，f1开始用虚拟替代方案取代取消的比赛. 一级方程式第一场“虚拟大奖赛”平局.2百万电视观众和3.200万在线观众. 纳斯卡加入了纳斯卡赛车专业邀请赛系列, 随着第一期播放到900多部,在福克斯体育频道上有1000名观众.

Just as popular (and equally ascendant in the current climate) are competitions like 转矩的电子竞技的The Race全明星系列赛, 哪位明星模拟赛车手在模拟赛车对决中对抗职业车手, ESPN2直播, 这要归功于扭矩与体育转播巨头(截至2020年4月)之间的新合作伙伴关系。下面的图1和2).

图1. 转矩的电子竞技的The Race全明星系列赛

图2. Race游戏玩法

他说道:“我们并不期待今年会有100万新用户在电视上观看模拟赛车 转矩的电子竞技 首席运营官Darcy Lorincz:“现在我们的意识达到了我们从未想过的水平。”(下面的图3).

图3. 尼尔森媒体研究公司的数据显示，赛车赛事的平均收视率超过1%.100万年

当然，提高模拟赛车的用户粘性并不局限于被动的电视观众. 4月中旬，转矩的电子竞技报告称其《百家乐软件》下载量增长了416%.俱乐部模拟赛车游戏. 在去年11月的流媒体西部的一次演讲中, Lorincz projected an 18-month ramp-up period for the various projects and growth that companies under the 转矩的电子竞技 umbrella, 例如UMG Gaming, 原计划. That meant ensuring that Torque had the infrastructure in place to meet exploding demand for live-action gaming with resilient streaming and minimal latency. (Lorincz解释道:“延迟是模拟赛车的最大杀手.)但是当世界在3月份以前所未有的方式开始玩游戏时, 他说, 转矩的电子竞技经历了一场新的疯狂三月, 将18个月的成长压缩到90天.”

Most of this growth is attributable to what Lorincz calls the “crossover crowd … others who have probably never even done this before—at least not at this scale. 他们可能会涉猎和观察事物. 我们可以看到它们是从哪里来的, 我们确切地知道他们是否已经是注册用户, 例如. 这本身就是一个合适的数据点. 我们非常密切地跟踪这些kpi.”

在WTF1, 这是一家面向f1车迷的“纯数字”游戏网站，最近被扭矩电子竞技收购, 洛林茨说，大约80%的访客是新来的. “They would be people might have who read stories and watched videos of real races in the past but weren’t in [the sim racing] world.当“家里的避难所”在3月份推出时，他们的Gear首次下载(不是更新).俱乐部手机游戏一周内增长了74%. 对于在同一时间框架内上传到Twitch的赛车亮点的看法, Lorincz补充道, 该公司的增长率达到了惊人的3600%.

但他也承认，他从未料到事情会发生得这么快, Lorincz believes the latent potential for this kind of growth was always inherent to esports’ widely distributed participation model—and perhaps it just needed such a dramatic cultural shift to unleash it. “I don't believe that scale [in esports] comes from getting people together in a theater or an arena or a stadium,洛林茨争辩道. “这些活动很棒，但你能做多少呢?? ESL(电子竞技联盟)举办12到14场大型赛事. 在UMG，我们每天要自动处理800个事件. 这就是我喜欢的比例. 这就是驱动我们数字的原因.”

品牌与繁荣

Felix LaHaye，创始合伙人 美国的电子竞技 (下面的图4)，他说:“在观众的周期性中，有许多因素在起作用. 我们有一些人来代替传统体育运动, 年轻人可能会第一次尝试.”

图4. 美国的电子竞技

LaHaye contends that on a broader level across the esports universe—beyond gaming that simulates traditional sports—much of the growth can be attributed to existing gamers with more time on their hands expanding their horizons. 他把它比作“当你还是个孩子的时候，你在家看电视生病了. 如果你一天要看12个小时的内容, 你可以尝试新事物, 有更多样化的方法吗. 你可能不会再看5个多小时的同一个主播. 人们变得更有创新精神，对他们想看的东西也更有冒险精神. 我认为这会给不同的频道带来新的观众.”

作为一个 电子竞技营销公司United esports’ focus is developing campaigns and content initiatives to bring value to brands making investments in the esports space. LaHaye表示，这些品牌对电子竞技消费的突然增长反应不一. “一些品牌不愿意这么做，因为它们认为这是一个不确定的时期,他说, ，然后是完全相反的, 这些品牌与媒体的某些元素更加合拍, 哪些人正在涌向电子竞技，或者在其中一些领域加倍下注. 你会看到一些品牌退出了，但其他品牌的回报却有所增加. 我们谁也不满意目前的情况, but in esports there are a lot of companies that are trying to capitalize on the fact that people are at home. 这是一种强烈的理解, 电子竞技的数字化本质, 现在的活动应该和以前一样多，甚至更多.”

当前的数字说明了这个问题, 根据亚利桑那的说法, 在某些方面不完全是美好的吗, more congruent with the general state of the economy than the booming participation levels esports is enjoying. “赞助是电子竞技市场最大的收入来源,亚利桑那的Das评论道, “the cancellation of onsite tournaments and large-scale in-person events played in big stadiums has led to a decline in esports revenue from our previous estimates. COVID-19还影响了其他收入来源，如媒体版权、出版商费用和门票. 商品销售也受到了影响. 到2020年，市场收入将比我们之前的估计减少近9000万美元.”

But Das hastens to add that a boost to the revenue picture more or less commensurate with increased esports awareness is likely to follow as the economy begins to rebound: “Further projections for 2021-2025 show a strong revenue forecast based on increased popularity of esports during COVID-19. We believe occasional watchers will turn into esports enthusiasts in greater numbers pushing the market revenue further beyond our projections.” Arizton’s revised estimates (reflecting the current unanticipated surge) project the size of the global esports market exceeding $2.到2025年达到80亿美元, 同时在这五年期间的复合年增长率(CAGR)超过17%.