Esports Leagues: A great activity no matter what age.
Esports is a term used to refer to competitive team and solo-based video games that have become extremely popular at the professional and amateur levels. Across the U.S., esports are quickly becoming one of the most popular activities among teens. According to studies conducted by Review42 and Techjury, over 84% of teens have access to gaming consoles in their homes and 64% of U.S. households own some type of gaming device. Furthermore, according to Review42, there were over 166 million adults in the U.S. who considered themselves gamers in 2018, making esports a great activity no matter what age.
While the idea of esports leagues or tournaments may seem like a daunting task to offer to your community, one of the biggest perks with esports is gamers can participate from the comfort of their own home, or anywhere with internet access. In fact, even at the professional level, esports athletes often compete from across the world.
The COVID-19 pandemic helped show us how valuable esports and gaming can be when it comes to keeping in touch with friends, or keeping ourselves occupied while staying safe and social distancing. Although traditional sports can be heavily influenced by factors such as weather, esports athletes have the luxury of only relying on having access to the internet and a gaming device to play.
According to an article by Edtech Magazine, over 1,200 high schools and 300 colleges in the U.S. have started esports programs and provide a fun extracurricular activity to their students that helps develop their teamwork and communication in the same way as traditional sports.
A recent poll by the National Alliance for Youth Sports reported 70% of children stop playing in traditional sports by the age of 13. The same poll shows esports and gaming growing in popularity, with 90% of 12 to 17 year olds participating in playing video games. Providing a fun and safe esports league for community members to compete in their favorite video games is a great way to keep people of all ages active in your community center.
With some of the most popular video games right now being free-to-play and cross-platform, gamers are able to compete virtually no matter what gaming device they are using. Offering esports programming to your community is easier than you think and can be an exciting, new and profitable way to capture the large population of gamers in your area.
