In 2022, less than 30% of the investment will be made, so
“a virtuous cycle of investment and profit is needed.” '100 million concurrently connected viewers, 400 million cumulative connected viewers.'

This is the number of viewers for the finals of the ‘League of Legends World Championship’ (Worlds Cup), the world’s largest e-sports tournament, held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro-gu, Seoul on November 19 last year. It provides a measure of the heightened status of e-sports by captivating young people around the world.

According to Newzoo, an e-sports research company, the global e-sports industry size, which was $1.137 billion (approximately KRW 1.48 trillion) in 2021, is expected to grow to approximately $2.285 billion (approximately KRW 2.97 trillion) in 2025. do. Viewers around the world also increased from 395 million in 2018 to 650 million last year.

In Korea, the e-sports industry has been growing steadily. According to the '2023 e-Sports Survey' published by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency, the size of the e-sports industry, which was approximately 60.2 billion won in 2014, grew to 151.4 billion won in 2022.

Korea has led the e-sports industry, especially since its infancy in the late 1990s. In 1999, the Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) was established and laid the foundation for the growth of the e-sports industry by promoting the launch of a professional league and the establishment of rules. Korea also led the creation of the International e-Sports Federation (IeSF) in 2008.

However, low profits from competitions are still pointed out as an obstacle to industrial development. In 2021, the amount invested by game companies in broadcasting, holding competitions, and operating players and game teams is 83.9 billion won, but the profit is only 32.9 billion won, or 39% of the investment amount. Even this, in 2022, the investment amount decreased by more than 10 billion won to 70.3 billion won, and the profit decreased to 19.9 billion won, which is 28.3% of the investment amount.

The size of domestic e-sports gaming teams is also small. Looking at the budget status of gaming teams in 2022, there were five gaming teams with an annual budget of between KRW 1.1 billion and less than KRW 5 billion, two with between KRW 600 million and less than KRW 1.1 billion, and two with less than KRW 600 million. There were only four places with an annual budget of more than 5 billion won. Considering that the annual budget of a professional baseball team is around 30 billion won, the size difference is large.

Accordingly, the Korea Creative Content Agency said in its report: △ upward standardization of clubs and players through the introduction of a salary cap system △ formation of a grassroots e-sports culture such as introduction of a regional affiliation system △ discussion of a concurrent study system for e-sports student athletes △ improvement of the environment such as incorporating new artificial intelligence (AI) technology suggested that this was necessary.

An e-sports industry official said, “If Korea is not to lose its competitiveness as a leading country, it must urgently establish a structure that creates a virtuous cycle of industry-related investment and profit generation.” 카지노사이트