This article is part of a series exploring trends in marketing, media and media buying for 2025. More from the series →
After spending much of 2024 recovering from a down period, esports industry executives are stepping on the gas in anticipation of a growth year in 2025.
In 2023, advertisers and investors alike jumped ship from competitive gaming, leading to the so-called esports winter, a period in which esports organizations consolidated or pivoted to new business models in order to stay afloat. Over the past 12 months, however, the industry has recovered, in part thanks to brands coming back into the space, as well as the updated revenue share programs created by the publishers of popular esports games.
Emboldened by the success of new major esports events such as the Esports World Cup — and by an influx of investment by the Saudi Arabian government — esports industry leaders are projecting confidence going into 2025. Here’s a look into the best-case scenario for competitive gaming in the new year.
Saudi support
When asked about areas of interest for 2025, the 12 esports industry leaders whom Digiday contacted for this story universally voiced their excitement for the Olympics Esports Games announced by the International Olympic Committee earlier this year. The first iteration of the event will be hosted next year in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with plans to host further editions “regularly” for the next 12 years.
To experienced esports executives, the introduction of an official IOC-sanctioned esports event — in addition to the Esports World Cup held in Riyadh this past summer — reflects the broader cultural acceptance of esports. They believe the presence of these events could help esports companies once again sell their broadcast rights, a previous major revenue source for esports leagues that has fallen away in recent years.
“You have IOC-sanctioned events; the Esports World Cup is doing their events, as are ‘League of Legends.’ As the product is growing, mobile games are coming into play at a significantly larger level,” said Hicham Chahine, CEO of the esports team Ninjas in Pyjamas. “You have traditional broadcasts, other streaming platforms and one-off events being bought for streaming services. It’s inevitable that this is coming back. But, for now, we have co-streaming, because we have had a tough 2023 and a tough 2024 for those models.”
Co-streaming is the future
As Chahine pointed out above, another growing trend that will influence the esports industry in the coming year is the rise of influencer co-streaming, the practice of officially allowing popular livestreamers to host their own broadcasts of esports tournaments and events, boosting the total viewership of the event as a result.
“Co-streaming is a positive and a negative. It’s awesome from the idea of diversification of the fan base, getting big viewership numbers and opening up esports to different viewpoints and different audiences that maybe aren’t tuning in normally,” said Chris DeAppolonio, CEO of the esports team Evil Geniuses. “But, at the end of the day, the tournament organizers or broadcasters don’t really own the eyeballs, right? And so they can’t truly understand the demographics of the viewers and fully monetize them, whether through media rights or paid viewership partnerships.”
Esports publishers and league operators have gradually warmed up to co-streaming in recent years — but in 2024, it became the norm. Over the past year, events such as the “Rainbow Six” Invitational and PGL’s “Counter-Strike” majors used co-streaming to achieve record-breaking viewership numbers, reflecting the growing prominence of individual influencers within the online gaming space.
“We’re precious about our broadcast, but we also want our players to enjoy esports the way that they want to enjoy them — and if that’s watching their favorite streamer or their favorite influencer, we’re thrilled by that,” said Riot Games president of publishing and esports John Needham. “So, co-streaming actually generates close to 50 percent of our revenue in both esports [‘League of Legends’ and ‘Valorant’].”
More consolidation to come
The fact that 2024 was a relatively good year for the esports industry does not mean that every company in the space benefited from the positive trend. Like 2023, 2024 was a year of consolidation for the esports industry, with smaller companies merging or getting snapped up by larger esports companies in order to survive and scale up.
Over the past year, roughly 20 percent of gaming transactions have been esports-focused, according to Drake Star’s Q3 2024 Global Gaming Report, including recent deals such as Guild Esports’ sale to DCB Sports and M80’s acquisition of the esports team Beastcoast.
In 2025, the consolidation of esports is likely to continue. The esports organizations that will thrive are the so-called “tier one” orgs — those with large valuations, major brand deals and a presence across multiple games or communities. Some smaller orgs may also manage to continue growing by focusing their branding and identity on one game — as with Sentinels and “Valorant” — or one geographic market. But the mid-sized esports orgs between these two poles will continue to feel pressure, whether or not the esports winter has thawed.
“In the foreseeable future, there will be less and less of the tier-two companies, when it comes to the orgs and the games. The orgs that can thrive are the top orgs, the multi-gaming orgs that are supported by strong investment: G2, Liquid, Na’Vi, Vitality,” said Team Vitality CEO Nicolas Maurer. “So, those kinds of teams, they have a future. We all have our own challenges, but there’s a clear path to monetization.”
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