As competitive video games continue to expand into popular culture, global investors, brands, media outlets, and consumers have all started paying attention to the rising popularity of Esports.
Being part of popular culture has helped Esports rise to power through explosions in investment and revenue. Due to the pandemic, and the increased viewership that came with it, the Esports industry’s revenue is projected to surpass $1 billion in 2021. Esports have hit the stratosphere, in large part due to the social component of live streaming and gaming.
Video game-centric streaming platforms, like Twitch and YouTube Gaming, give fans a direct connection to players and teams, while more mainstream socials have allowed those connections to flourish.
Team NAVI made history in 2020 as one of the most viewed esports teams globally, with a fanbase of 18.4 million strong, and content with close to 600 million views on YouTube.
Alexander Pavlenko, CMO of NAVI, believes that the collaboration of esports and crypto was inevitable and bound to happen:
"Cryptocurrency and esports have much in common: They are new, fast-growing, and fascinating to keep watch and learn. We shall strive to show esports fans the actual value of digital-based communication by cryptocurrency platform Bybit and our team.
Also, we want to represent the esports world to cryptocurrency enthusiasts as a point of their interest. We hope to bring new game-changing and engaging projects to make esports a better place to play together."
He said.
With an overwhelmingly young demographic, esports is predicted to be an “up only” industry, just as cryptocurrency finds its way into mainstream portfolios globally.
Many in the esports community will likely be keen to embrace a digital-first, borderless, and decentralized asset class. They will therefore be able to benefit from connecting with a fast-growing platform facilitating cryptocurrency.
"We are delighted to connect with one of the most iconic names in esports that provided 86.1 million hours of thrilling entertainment to audiences worldwide in 2020.
We are looking forward to unleashing the natural synergy between the crypto community and the athletes and creators in esports,"
said Ben Zhou, Co-founder, and CEO at Bybit.