Game maker Activision Blizzard to bring live e-sports to Facebook
Trio of plans announced that will increase awareness of the e-sports world and hook viewers with specially formatted videos and smarter statistics
Video game maker Activision Blizzard wants to make e-sports mainstream by bringing video game competitions not to television, but to the world’s largest social media company.
The California-based company’s Media Networks unit announced this month a trio of plans intended to increase awareness of e-sports, hooking viewers with specially formatted videos and smarter statistics. Among the initiatives is live streaming competitions on Facebook, expanding beyond specialist online outlets such as MLG.tv and Twitch.
By the end of the year, market researcher Newzoo estimates more than 1 billion will have heard of e-sports, which involves players battling in games such as League of Legends and Dota 2 for prizes reaching into the millions of dollars. But the firm said just 292 million people watch matches at least occasionally.
Closing the gap will be crucial to attracting advertisers, which eSports teams, organisers and companies such as Activision Blizzard expect to be a top source of income for the fledgling industry. That’s why the recent announcement came at the NewFronts online advertising convention in New York.