Limited to paid members
Photo courtesy of Riot Games
E-sports, which is expected to soon be adopted in the Olympics, has established itself as a huge market around the world. And that wave has already reached Japan. The number of online viewers for each top tournament easily exceeds the annual attendance for the Hanshin and Giants games in professional baseball, and Generation Z in particular is passionate about supporting and spending money on events and their favorite teams. Special feature “Get 50 trillion yen! In #13 of “Japanese Games” (all 25 episodes), let’s take a look at the current state of the e-sports market, which is likely to become as large as existing sports in the future. (Yoko Suzuki, Diamond Editorial Department)
The world championship final will be headlined by Grammy winner Linkin Park!
“League of Legends” mobilizes millions of people
November 2nd, O2 Arena, London, England. In front of an audience of 20,000 people filling the venue, Linkin Park, a rock band that has sold over 100 million records worldwide and has won two Grammy Awards, appeared.
As the new song “Heavy is the Crown” was played on a stage illuminated by intense flames and searchlights, the championship cup rose from the stage. Vocalist and guitarist Mike Shinoda shouts. “Enter the Worlds 2024 finalists, Team BLG and Team T1!”
As the excitement in the venue reached its peak, both teams, wearing white uniforms, entered through smoke-filled aisles on the left and right and took their seats in gaming chairs set up on the center stage.
This is one scene from the opening act of the Worlds 2024 finals. Worlds is the world tournament for League of Legends (LoL). LoL is a 5-on-5 online competitive game operated by Riot Games in the US since 2009. It is said that e-sports has the largest number of players in the world, and its tournaments are also the largest in the world.
Linkin Park took a seven-year hiatus following the death of vocalist Chester Bennington in 2017. They reunited in 2024 and chose to perform at the Worlds opening ceremony to kick off their world tour. Heavy is the crown was also written as the theme song for the Worlds 2024 tournament.
16 teams from South Korea, China, North America, and Europe participated in Worlds 2024. South Korea T1, which defeated China’s BLG in the finals to win the tournament, was awarded $450,000 (68.66 million yen) from a total prize pool of $2.225 million (approximately 339.52 million yen). In just one day, the final game attracted more viewers than the total annual attendance for Japan’s professional baseball games against Hanshin and Giants.
E-sports is being considered for addition to the official Olympic sports, but it is far from being an “event popular among a limited number of enthusiasts”; it has become something huge. There will be a huge prize money, a huge number of spectators from all over the world, and, just like the halftime show of the NFL (National Football League) Super Bowl, the world’s top Grammy Award-winning artists will be the opening acts. , it has become a huge, first-class event.
Although the global market for e-sports is overwhelming in terms of scale, the wave is starting to reach Japan as well. E-sports is also attracting attention from companies that have not previously had anything to do with gaming, as it is an event that reaches out to customer groups that other events and services have not been able to reach. Many of Japan’s major food and beverage companies also sponsor teams and tournaments.
However, when we look at Japanese game companies, their presence at global esports tournaments is surprisingly low. Is it possible to turn it around? Let’s take a closer look from the next page.