Could 2025 bring in an esports spring?

Athletic Operations

If there was any silver lining throughout the ‘esports winter’, it is that player salaries and economic expectations are now more closely aligned with real revenues, rather than being paid and based on raised capital.

Despite the industry’s ‘cold weather’, Team Liquid Co-CEO Steve Arhancet told Esports Insider the organization never once considered changing its focus on competitive gaming.

This new landscape helped Team Liquid reduce athletic operating expenses while expanding into more games and increasing its competitive rosters to over 15 titles going into 2025.

The organization’s major milestones, such as winning Dota 2’s The International 2024, taking silver at the inaugural Esports World Cup, clinching League of Legends’ LCS Spring Split, and reaching the M6 finals with its Mobile Legends Bang Bang roster contributed to growth in fandom and its budget sheets in 2024.

Playing the Brand Game

Outside of explicit partnerships within competitive gaming, brands have also continued to invest heavily in gaming experiences, especially on UGC platforms like Fortnite and Roblox — either less vocally as before or by taking more operations in-house.

Spirits brand Chivas Brothers brought in James Kent, formerly of EFG, as Global Senior Brand Manager – Ballantine’s Gaming & Esports.

“I’m lucky to have joined a brand that has already seen the opportunity within the gaming/esports space and will continue to invest into it,” Kent told Esports Insider over email.

“It’s safe to say that there is continued interest and commitment to gaming and esports,” Kent said.

Viewership Rising

According to Esports Charts, last year’s top viewership rankings for international events were slightly more diverse than in 2023, highlighting the growth of more esports scenes.

“Although the final statistics for 2024 have yet to be fully confirmed, early indicators suggest that this year has been more successful than 2023 in terms of esports livestream viewership.” Esports Charts Chief Sales Officer, Sergii Rudenko, told Esports Insider late last year.

He continued: “Notably, Worlds 2024 set a new peak concurrent viewership record (excluding Chinese platforms), marking a historic milestone in the esports industry.”

New Events on the Map

Despite it being ‘winter’, alternative events sprung up around the industry in 2024 to great success.

Days earlier, esports personalities Marc Robert ‘Caedrel’ Lamont and Eefje ‘Sjokz’ Depoortere launched The League Awards, an award show solely focused on celebrating the League of Legends ecosystem. The event peaked at 37,044 viewers, according to Esports Charts and from most accounts was an enjoyable experience.

The incredibly ambitious and controversial Esports World Cup garnered more (decidedly measured) mainstream coverage than any other esports event to date. If nothing else, Saudi Arabia’s investments in gaming and esports have given the esports community something to talk about.

Not to mention the country’s appointment as the official host for the Olympic Esports Games in 2025 and over the next 12 years.

Looking ahead into 2025, last year highlighted that the esports industry is an agile, scrappy and resourceful beast — not the kind to lay down and sleep through the winter. Removed from its business goals and challenges, it is a community driven by a passion for gaming, competition, and camaraderie.

Esports has overcome mainstream critiques, led innovations in live online entertainment broadcasts, and delivered new experiences for brands and audiences alike, sometimes on a shoestring budget.

The start-up of ecosystems has been built by hundreds of people who embody a ‘one-more-game mindset’. With any luck, 2024 will be the end of the industry’s cooldown, and 2025 brings in a new dawn.