Esports - Is gaming becoming a sport?

"esports is still an unknown quantity to most people – but as the world gets more tech-savvy, more people will accept it as sport."

In my mind the quote I found has hit the nail on the head, well kind of. Gaming has gone from sitting in your room (people still do it that way), to packing out sporting arenas around the world. I think whether people like it or not gaming has become a massive thing now and it will only continue to grow, but will it be accepted as a sport? Could we see it sitting a long side Football (soccer), Basketball and Baseball?

Lets look at how big it is at the moment, you would have had to have been living under a rock for the past 8 years not to of heard of Call of Duty. The series has sold roughly 175 million copies to date, on average one sold every two seconds. At the end of March the COD Championships took place in Las Vegas with the winning team banking a lovely $1 million, not bad for just sitting about playing games!

Yeah...this wasn't an actual match

 So we know the prize money is there, what about viewers/fans? League of Legends is an online arena battle type strategy game in which two teams of five champions battle it out. in 2013 the LOL championships attracted 32 million online viewers, that was double the viewers of the baseball world series and beat game seven of the NBA finals. The following year it attracted 40,000 to Sangam stadium in Seoul, the same stadium hosted a FIFA world cup semi final in 2002.

League of Legends Championship, Seoul 2014

I am starting to get the idea that professional esports teams are like Formula 1 teams. Teams can train up to 14 hours a day, working on strategy, technique and the opposition, this is then put in to action in regional leagues and tournaments. Individuals are earning past the £1 million per year and with more sponsors investing this will surely grow.

Now the more difficult part, while doing my research I saw a lot of people making the claim that gamers are athletes. There is no doubt in my mind that the top pros work incredibly hard to get to where they are today but an athlete, for me, is someone who takes part in a sport which requires great strength, speed or endurance (or a mixture of the three). 

I also believe that we don't need to compare though, gaming is so big now it has grown into its own world.  

"esports has earned the right to be whatever it wants to be. It doesn’t matter how people want to define it, it is simply a remarkable phenomenon."

Regardless of peoples views, esports is here and I can only see it getting bigger. Who knows, we may find events televised soon. Whatever happens, the future is bright for esports and for gaming as a whole.

@Joe_Copson