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5G Connectivity and Performance Will Fuel the Growing Esports Industry

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Esports had long been considered an afterthought within the athletic community as they struggled to find a mainstream audience through the 1990’s and 2000’s. Recently, they have been at the forefront of growth among all sports. Games like League of Legends, Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive draw massive audiences to view tournaments in person and on Twitch, the primary streaming platform used by esports leagues and gamers. Tournaments have sold out some of the biggest arenas in America including the Staples Center and Madison Square Garden.

According to Esports Charts, one match of the 2017 World Championship of League of Legends peaked at a total of 2.02 million viewers from North America alone. Altogether there were 15.6 billion hours of esports consumed online worldwide. The money is also pouring in to esports. Revenues almost tripled what was initially expected for 2017. Estimates were placed around $655 million for 2017 at the beginning of the year. By the end of the year, esports had generated $1.5 billion in revenue, including $750 million in investments. The market is now expected to exceed $2 billion by 2021.2

Background:

In terms of online viewership, during January 2018, Twitch attracted 962,000 concurrent viewers, which is almost 200,000 more viewers than CNN attracted during its peak day during the same month.1

1 https://www.investors.com/news/technology/click/esports-channel-twitch-draws-more-viewers-than-cnn/2 https://www.pcgamer.com/esports-was-worth-15-billion-in-2017/

15.6 billion hours consumed online worldwide

$750 million in investments in 2017

$2 billion worldwide esports revenue

expected by 2021

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The Technology ChallengeFor esports leagues to support tournament play, they have some fairly specific technological needs that many arenas, convention centers, and other facilities looking to host these growing events may not have the expertise or infrastructure to handle. Currently, tournaments are relying on expensive, wired, fiber Internet connections which require a team of IT specialists to set up. This not only takes time to arrange and plan, but the costs add up quickly. Additionally, this limits tournaments to venues that have been previously wired and designed to support a fiber optic network.

Not only are tournaments relying on very specific infrastructure, but gamers at home need to rely on a similar type of network. While not all gamers have access to fiber-optic networks, most gamers are required to sign-up for an Internet service that offers them no more than 10 mbps and requires an Ethernet connection to attain top quality speeds and latency. Gamers are limited in their options and rarely have access to the best possible Internet available. Much of the time, their house or apartment building is not wired for the best possible service.

Why 5G?Latency is extremely important to a gaming experience. Latency, otherwise known as ping, determines how quickly your input on a controller or mouse is registered through the Internet and actually executed on screen. Low latency can cause severe lag and seriously delay your gameplay. A single millisecond of latency can be the determining factor between victory and defeat for even the best gamers. 5G is able to provide latency of close to 0 milliseconds, the fastest that has ever been commercially available. Current 4G or Wi-Fi networks provide latency in the tens of milliseconds.

In addition to latency, the number of connected devices determines the quality of your online experience. Users nowadays have multiple connected devices that require access to Internet at all times. Many of these devices are being used at the same time, whether browsing the Internet, watching Netflix, or playing games. Just one connected device on top of playing a game online on one router can severely impact the performance of the game. With 5G, high-bandwidth multi-device support can be addressed without performance impacts due to technology’s ability to deliver high-capacity at low latency.

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OpportunitiesFor the gamers around the world 5G provides a unique opportunity, whether it’s the casual gamers playing on their couch or professional gamers playing in front of millions of fans with millions of dollars on the line. One of the first use cases is leveraging 5G technology to deliver fixed wireless access to under served residents who have limited or no broadband service providers. For gamers in these areas, 5G could be the service that unlocks the next esports professional by providing gigabit level wireless service to their home.

In order to target those casual gamers who play from home, service providers can deliver fixed wireless service via 5G. Given 5G’s capabilities, service providers could offer a gaming package that will equip gaming households with the performance to support the more rigorous online games. Furthermore, this service will allow users to connect as many devices as needed at once without causing lag.

For leagues and traveling tournaments, service providers can provide easily deployed 5G access points that deliver the venue enough low-latency bandwidth to fuel the tournament. With 5G, density would not be an issue as the service can support up to 10x more devices than previously possible with 4G.

5G would ensure continuous connectivity and top of the line performance.

In addition to providing top quality services, the esports landscape is ripe with sponsorship opportunities. Teams, tournament hosts, and leagues are always looking for the best companies to represent their brands and help esports continue to grow. By providing the network to give esports leagues and tournaments the speeds they need, service providers would be putting themselves in a great position to represent esports far into its bright future.

With over 35 tournaments held worldwide, including over 20 in the United States alone, that play multiple times a year, there is ample opportunity for arenas and convention centers to host an event that draws tens of thousands of attendees and millions of viewers online.

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Samsung offers an end-to-end 5G solution that enables network service providers the ability to deliver various service levels to certain segments like esports.

For service providers, a new segment with gamers and new opportunities exist in terms of enabling 5G fixed wireless access or wireless broadband for gamers with limited broadband at home or by partnering with tournament hosts to provide high quality Internet to the arena.

For gamers at home, Samsung offers a 5G home router that is easily and quickly installed and provides up to 1Gbps of service capability. For tournaments, Samsung offers an end-to-end 5G solution with compact radio access units that could be easily deployed inside the large arenas for optimal design to ensure ultra high-performance levels needed to execute tournaments.

Samsung produces the necessary network elements to enable 5G service with wireless providers.

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