A Breakthrough Problem in Esports Smaller Titles

There’s no doubt that in every sense of the word esports is still finding tremendous growth as the biggest titles around the world pull in higher numbers than ever before, but that growth is largely targeted in the same spaces as the big three make up the majority of viewership, and some other titles are gaining a little steam – but there has been a small problem with smaller or less represented titles breaking through into the esports scene, so why is this?

Spectator problems are still an issue

All of the bigger games bring the same thing to the table – as a spectator sport, the games are typically quite easy to watch and follow with all of the tools for allowing easy broadcasting support for spectators too – and this is typically where the newer and smaller titles are falling short. Even games that have been around for a longer period of time that are now trying to establish themselves in esports with games like World of Warcraft are struggling in this regard, the tools to allow easy broadcasting for spectators don’t exist or the games are difficult to understand, and it leads to a slower uptake of many of these smaller titles.

Other markets have been slow to come online too

Supporting markets like betting has become a vital part of these games too, a few can be found here for example that don’t subscribe to initiatives like Gamstop – the audience and viewer base for esports as a whole are changing and familiar options like this are certainly helpful to get a new demographic on board, but it also means the smaller or emerging titles have a lot of ground to cover to develop this part of the scene. Part of the problem is that there just isn’t a market for some, particularly where viewership or betting markets are much smaller, but have become essential for some to move forward. 

Attracting talent is just as difficult

You’ll always have the die-hard fans and the big followers that are attracted to newer and growing titles, but the reason why esports has grown so quickly and so large is within the big names that make up the pro scene. Without the big salaries and sponsorship deals, it’s hard to pull the big talent across into a newer game if there isn’t the money there to support growth in talent, the games often tend to remain a little on the smaller side. 

There’s certainly a lot of lessons still to be learned, esports in its current form is still relatively young only being around for the past few years so there’s plenty of room left to grow yet, but many of the upcoming games will have to look at what the bigger games are doing right and follow the blueprint with newer titles like Valorant showing just how easy it can be.