With the Asian Games approaching, esports audiences are telling the world what is the mainstream of competition with real money.
How expensive are Asian Games esports tickets
Half a month ago, if someone told me that a sports ticket had to be bought ten times the premium, I would only subconsciously think that this person was crazy while carefully wondering whether Messi had come to work again with Miami International. But this is not the case, this time it is the ticket to the Hangzhou Asian Games e-sports project.
In mid-August, the Hangzhou Asian Organizing Committee announced the official opening of ticket sales for the Hangzhou Asian Games e-sports. This sale takes the form of registration lottery and winning payment, and ticket buyers need to select specific competition items and competition sessions, and submit an application before participating in the lottery to obtain ticket purchase qualifications. It is reported that this is the only competition in this Hangzhou Asian Games that needs to be drawn to determine the purchase qualification.
From the price point of view, Hangzhou Asian Games e-sports tickets are not only difficult to buy, but also very expensive. According to the official website of Hangzhou Asian Games ticketing, there are a total of 7 sub-events in the Asian Games e-sports, and the maximum price of all small tickets is unified at 1000. In terms of starting price, the Asian Games version of League of Legends and Honor of Kings is 200 yuan, and the remaining 5 sub-items are 400 yuan.
Comparing horizontally, whether it is the starting price or the highest price, the ticket price of Asian Games e-sports is basically higher than other sports of the Asian Games. Taking the popular gold winning project in the mainland as an example, the ticket price range of table tennis is 100~800 yuan, diving is 200~800 yuan, and swimming is 100~1000 yuan. Not to mention the unpopular projects, the ticket price of equestrian is 100~500 yuan, which is only half the price of e-sports tickets. The ticket price of archery is only 80~100 yuan, which is only 1/10 of e-sports.
Ticket sales belong to the market economy, and the price is determined by supply and demand. The fact that ticket sales of Hangzhou Asian Games e-sports tickets can be so hot is inseparable from the considerable consumption willingness and spending power of the e-sports audience. After the rapid development of the mainland e-sports industry in the past decade, users' consumption habits have gradually developed.
According to the "2023 Global E-sports Industry Development Report" released by Penguin Youqiao, China's e-sports users are expected to reach 478 million in 2023, of which about 87.3% have made e-sports-related purchases in the past year, and the amount of spending is gradually increasing. From 2022 to 2023, the proportion of users spending 100~500 yuan in the mainland will increase from 26.4% to 31.1%, and the proportion of users with 500~2000 yuan will increase from 24.0% to 29.8%.
Compared with the commercial leagues that benchmark the e-sports sub-events of the Asian Games, the ticket price range of this year's League of Legends Pro League Summer Finals is 388~1388 yuan, the price range of King Glory Summer Final tickets is 288~1688 yuan, and the price range of Peace Elite Summer Finals is 288~1088 yuan. It can be seen that the price design of Hangzhou Asian Games e-sports tickets is basically in line with the consumption level of domestic e-sports audiences, and there is no additional premium (for e-sports audiences).
Based on the above data, the current situation of Asian Games esports tickets is no longer difficult to understand. According to the official blog of the Hangzhou Asian Organizing Committee, the maximum number of applications for each Asian Games e-sports competition is 2 million, and the registration for this lottery is carried out in batches according to the competition sub-events, and users can only apply for one session in each batch. This means that the entire Hangzhou Asian Games e-sports project has at least 5 million ticket application users. Due to venue restrictions, the maximum number of spectators per session is 4,000, so the chance of winning a ticket is not more than 2 in 1,000.
With more monks and less porridge, combined with the audience's sufficient spending power and willingness to consume, under the combined influence of many factors, Asian Games e-sports tickets have become a scarce commodity that is difficult to buy with money and extremely difficult to buy. Under the topics related to social platforms, user feedback is mainly based on the desire to go to the scene to see the players they support or their favorite e-sports projects, and basically do not mention their views on ticket prices. Taking the official blog of the Hangzhou Asian Organizing Committee as an example, under the news of the explanation of the sales process of Asian Games e-sports tickets, only Qing Yishui's "bless yourself to be able to win (ticket purchase qualification)" in the comment area.
When their favorite things first appeared on the stage of the Intercontinental Multi-sports Games as official competitions, under the superimposed influence of e-sports on the user's mind and the user's sense of national honor, the scarcity of Asian Games e-sports tickets was comparable to Jay Chou and Mayday concerts, becoming one of the hottest entertainment products this year.
Be wary of emotional "backlash"
Hangzhou Asian Games e-sports ticket sales are hot, and the outside world is mixed about this.
During the Asian Games e-sports, the national complex of mainland e-sports users will reach its peak in recent years. While lamenting that this force is driving the local cultural tourism economy, we also need to always be vigilant against this force breaking out on the wrong way. The reason why Asian Games esports tickets make people grab the head is that the influence of national beliefs in the hearts of e-sports audiences is greater than their love for e-sports itself.
In the minds of many veterans of the esports industry, when it comes to memorable moments in the esports industry, most of them will remember the figure of Li Xiaofeng (ID: Sky) wearing the national flag and jumping onto the WCG podium twenty years ago. To them, that image is what Jordan's last shot is to older NBA fans.
Since the beginning of the development of the mainland e-sports industry, honor and nation have been closely linked. The reason for this is now nowhere to be found. In the early years, nine times out of ten, players went abroad to participate in competitions, which were personal choices, rather than national counterparts indicating that they would be sent abroad. Strictly speaking, they only participate in commercial events, and the players who compete outside the country can only represent themselves. They don't represent a country, and wearing the flag is just a form of expression of the contestant's nationality.
However, for some reason, the individual efforts and achievements of the players gradually formed a strong binding relationship with the nationality and nationality. Under the influence of this "false rumor", the idea of "pedigree" is deeply ingrained among the audience of the mainland e-sports industry. This practice of forcibly linking individual achievements with the state and the nation really does not know whether it reflects the self-confidence of a group or the inferiority of a group.
Before esports entered the multi-sports games, the "pedigree theory" had already "turned the tide" in commercial esports events. The appeal of commercial events is to maximize profits, which is to find the best players to play the most attractive matches, but the existence of "blood theory" makes foreign players have to bear greater public pressure than local players. Under the premise of similar competitive levels, the popularity of the all-Chinese class, which is composed of all Chinese players, will obviously be higher than that of the mixed lineup composed of local players and foreign players.
The commercial league is already like this, and when it comes to the Asian Games, which are truly fighting for the country, this force will only increase. Regardless of whether the performance of the Chinese esports national team at the Hangzhou Asian Games in the end meets the audience's expectations, the esports audience will give immeasurable feedback. How to correctly guide the release of this force has become a major focus of work at present.
For now, the relevant departments seem to have not yet decided on this, which can be seen from the fact that the Chinese e-sports national team has not officially announced the endorsement. According to relevant practitioners, during the Hangzhou Asian Games, the sponsorship and endorsement of the national teams of each project was the responsibility of the Equipment Center of the General Administration of Sports, and there were indeed relevant brands that proposed cooperation intentions to the Equipment Center, but because the e-sports national team was supervised by the Information Management Center of the General Administration of Sports, the matter was finally closed.
It can be seen from the above news that even if e-sports enter Asia, in the eyes of relevant regulatory personnel, risks still exist.
At the beginning of July this year, the Olympic Council of Asia plenary meeting was held in Bangkok, where it was announced that esports will become an official sport of the 2026 Asian Games in Japan. At the same time, Huo Qigang, president of the Asian Electronic Sports Federation, announced at the 2023 Global Esports Leadership Summit that the Asian Cup of Electronic Sports will be held in 2024. In the future, the entry of e-sports into intercontinental multi-sports events, and even the holding of intercontinental comprehensive e-sports events with the state as the participating unit in the industry, has become an irreversible development trend.
Under such a trend, the national complex of nearly 500 million e-sports users in mainland China is bound to affect the progress of the entire e-sports industry in more scenarios. What can we do to make this huge audience love the sport more than the instant honor? This is both a problem and an opportunity.