If there is any part of the world today that can give people the feeling of "local tyrants", the rich (literally) Middle East must be among them, and Saudi Arabia is a representative country.
The latest news, Saudi Arabia spent a lot of money and broke the record of the total prize money of the E-sports World Cup as soon as it made a move, which is undoubtedly a blockbuster positive for the e-sports market in the "cold winter" in the past two years.
The prize money of the Esports World Cup is more than 400 million
On the evening of April 16, the E-sports World Cup Foundation announced that the total prize money of the first E-sports World Cup to be held in Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2024 will exceed 60 million US dollars, which is equivalent to more than 400 million yuan at the latest exchange rate, and it also broke the record of 45 million US dollars set by "Gamers8: Land of Heroes" in 2023.
Gamers8 is also an e-sports event held in Saudi Arabia, which was previously one of the most expensive events in the history of e-sports.
It is reported that the Esports World Cup will invite the world's top clubs and players to participate in 20 different tournaments over the course of eight weeks.
It is worth noting that although Saudi Arabia plans to host esports events with reference to the scale of the World Cup, the Esports World Cup will not be in the form of national teams, but in the form of club participation, and will give $20 million in prize money to the top 16 clubs based on their overall performance.
The remaining prize pool will be split into 3 different award categories: 1) a $33 million tournament prize pool for a total of 20 events, each with its own prize pool, 2) a $7 million qualifier prize pool to be distributed among various partner publishers and organizers in "qualifiers", and 3) a $50,000 bounty for each MVP player.
The games participating in this Esports World Cup include CS2, Dota 2, Fortnite, Free Fire, Honor of Kings, League of Legends, MLBB, Overwatch 2, PUBG, PUBG Mobile, Rainbow Six, Rocket League, StarCraft 2, Genting Game, etc., and other game content will be announced soon.
Many of the games on the above list are also very popular in China, such as League of Legends, which has a very strong mass base.
At the end of March, Tencent Holdings (00700. HK) Riot Games posted on its official account that players in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will usher in some changes this year. League of Legends esports teams and League of Legends Genting Esports players will compete in the Esports World Cup (EWC) in Riyadh this summer, with League of Legends localized in Arabic and a new Middle East server opening later this year.
Judging from the current feedback, among some groups who pay attention to e-sports, the high prize pool of the E-sports World Cup has sparked heated discussions.
What is the impact of Saudi Arabia's spending?
It is worth mentioning that although the e-sports market has been developing in China for some years, the "entry of e-sports events into Asia" has pushed the popularity of the industry to a new level, and the prize money of some events has also risen rapidly.
The development of the e-sports industry has been favored by capital, and JD.com (09618. HK), Li Ning (02331. HK), Weibo (09898. HK), Wang Sicong and other enterprises and individuals have also set up e-sports teams.
However, in the past two years, the momentum of the domestic e-sports market has turned from prosperity to decline, according to the data released by the E-sports Working Committee of the China Audio and Digital Association, the revenue of China's e-sports industry in 2022 will be 144.503 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.01%.
Specific to the event, the popularity of the League of Legends event, which is dominated by LPL, has plummeted, and it is even rumored that the audience at the spring game site is not as large as the players, and the staff acts as actors to interact with the players' fans and other bizarre operations.
According to the statistics of the number of broadcasts of Bilibili-W (09626.HK) LPL Spring Tournament in recent years (excluding the playoffs and finals), 16 games in the 2022 and 2023 Spring Tournaments both exceeded 1 million views, while so far, only 2 events in the 2024 Spring Tournament have exceeded 1 million views, and the decline in popularity is obvious.
The weakness of the esports market has led to a reduction in investment, which in turn has caused many teams to fall into the dilemma of disbandment and salary arrears.
At the moment, the high prize pool provided by the Esports World Cup hosted by Saudi Arabia may be a major positive for boosting the esports industry.
Riot Games also said in an article on its official account that it is also clear that many esports organizations and players are currently facing financial challenges. With that in mind, we don't want esports teams and players to lose out on this opportunity to gain financially and build their brand. EWC not only provides an international arena, but also a generous prize pool that contributes to the financial stability of the participants.
Riot Games also said that through our initial exploration of EWC, we will evaluate the overall experience of the event, the benefits of the professional teams, and better understand the value of EWC to players around the world.
On the other hand, although Saudi Arabia is a tyrant, it will not "throw a lot of money" to host the E-sports World Cup for no reason.
It is understood that in addition to the exciting events, Saudi Arabia's hosting of the Esports World Cup also tries to create a large-scale immersive festival to turn the Saudi capital Riyadh into a center of e-sports fans and game culture.
In fact, this is the real goal of Saudi Arabia, which is to attract attention by hosting esports events, which can not only improve the country's international standing, but also take the opportunity to increase the GDP of the gaming and esports industries.
Saudi Arabia's economy is based on the oil industry, but it has been trying to diversify its economy and gradually reduce its dependence on oil, and the World Cup may be a good one.
Author: Yan XIV