Image Source: Visual China

BEIJING, July 29 (TMTPOST) – China has become the largest e-sports market in the world in terms of revenue, according to a report released by Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF), Tencent E-Sports and Qie Youdiao on Thursday.

The report, released by the AESF at the 2022 Global E-Sports Leader Summit in Hangzhou, shows that in 2022 global e-sports audience had reached 532 million. The revenue of global e-sports events hit US$1.384 billion in 2022. The figure is expected to grow to US$1.8 billion in 2025 with an annual compound growth rate of 13.4%.

The Chinese e-sports market contributes around one-third of the global revenues of e-sports events, making the country the biggest e-sports market in the world. Emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and Latin America are markets with the highest growth. The regional audience of e-sports in Asia will reach 300 million, according to the report.

Reports from Qianzhen Industry Research Institute show that Chinese e-sports teams are performing increasingly well in recent years as Chinese teams were able to claim the champion title at the League of Legends World Championship Series. The 2020 Global E-Sports Industry Development Report shows that the e-sports audience in China grew by 14.3% to 400 million in accordance with estimates and that the market will be able to enjoy high growth for several years to come.

In China, around 70% of netizens agree that e-sport is an actual sport. E-sports have already been added to the Asian Games. China's General Administration of Sports has included esports as an official sport in the country since 2003. This makes China one of the earliest adopters of esports on an official, government level.