Esports is the fastest-growing sport in the world. Now, with the rise of the popularity of competitive gaming, consoles are becoming increasingly involved in the space.
However, there has been a growing trend where console gamers are now participating in competitive Esports. And while this phenomenon has been around for years, it has never been as popular as it is today.
With the increase in popularity comes the increase in popularity of console gaming. As console gaming continues to grow, consoles will become more involved in the esports scene.
In this blog post, we’ll examine how console esports gaming has grown, and how they’ve evolved over the last few years. We’ll also take a look at the current trends in this space.
How is console gaming different from PC gaming
- Console games were once considered to be made for recreational gamers who just wanted to play arcade games at home. Then came the Next-gen consoles in 1994 where graphics caught up to their pc counterparts.
This gave gaming consoles comparable graphics and functionality to the PC and paved the way for more complex gameplay that could rival PC games. Sports and fighting games became more and more strategic, and the competitive scene started to take shape.
- Meanwhile, PC games were more strategic, games with lots of options and commands to make use of the keyboard’s numerous key options.
PC games were mostly composed of first-person shooters, adventure, and strategy games that catered to a subset of video game players. Once personal computers became less expensive and popular, more and more people organically created the demand for competitive play.
What made console gaming competitive
- Streaming platforms like Twitch and Youtube also popularized competitive console gaming as they were no longer merely adventure and platform games. More and more people saw the skill gap between the best players and the regular recreational player.
Streams of the best fighting game players would create curiosity and wonder about how to settle who the best is. Some players even paid skilled players for coaching and tips to improve their game.
- Online play on consoles also had a hand in creating a competitive scene for console games. People from around the world could now settle and keep records of who the best players were. This ability to connect hundreds of thousands of competitive players on consoles made rankings matter.
- Video game online store ecommerce popularity also gave way to digital and physical games. The advent of purchasing digital games for your console made it cheaper and always available. Mass market availability and online play created a competitive spirit long overdue for console video games.
Why is console gaming becoming more popular in esports?
Source: Statista
It’s because esports is becoming more popular, and the fact that consoles are becoming more powerful. Most next-generation consoles like the PS5 have almost closed out the gap versus mid-tier, even some mid-high PC gaming specs.
Console-esport gaming used to be popular only with the fighting game crowd, something that is reminiscent of the Arcade tournaments of the ’80s and ’90s. Things started to expand to sports and racing games as the next-gen console’s graphical capability and power began to catch up.
As consoles continue to improve in graphics quality, they will become more capable of running games at higher resolutions. Higher resolutions allow for sharper graphics and more detailed textures.
What are the most popular console games in esports?
- Fighting – Tekken, Marvel vs Capcom, Street Fighter, Killer Instinct, Super Smash Bros, Mortal Kombat, etc
- First-Person Shooters – Call of Duty, Halo
- Multiplayer Online Battle Arena – Mobile Legends
- Racing – Gran Tourismo
- Sports – Fifa, NBA 2k, Madden
- Third-person Shooters – Gears of War, Splatoon 2
How big Console game Esports has become
Source: Insider Intelligence
The biggest and most prestigious known console esports event is the EVO or evolution championship series. It is a collection of the biggest console-fighting game tournaments all in one place. From Super Smash Brothers, Mortal Kombat, and every Street Fighter or Marvel fighting game that has an audience. It is a collection of fighting game tournaments where the best of the best in the world duke it out for supremacy.
The Evolution Fighting Game Tournament Series is the largest and longest-running fighting game tournament in the world. Over the years, the fighting games community has evolved and changed, and we continue to see new genres and titles emerge. This event has grown console esport gaming to what it is now.
In 1996, two friends, Tom and Tony Cannon ran a series of arcades in San Jose and Cupertino. By 2002, the company made a lot of money and has grown into a global video game and home entertainment company.
Conclusion
Console games have come a long way in Esports gaming. Back then Esports gaming was primarily focused on PC Real-time strategy games such as Starcraft Broodwar and first-person shooters such as Quake and Counterstrike.
The next-gen gaming consoles that have come out since the inception of the Playstation and the succeeding iterations it has spawned have since then grown the console gaming culture into a more competitive one.
Console Esports gaming is here to stay, and with fighting games leading the charge, there’s no limit to where this growth can lead to.
