INDIAN ESPORTS PRICE MONEY GREW BY 180% IN 2019-2020

2019 has been a big year for esports in many regards. But for less-established regions like India, the effect has been incredible this year. Despite the massive population in India, the country was isolated from the global esports market and kept to small local communities and offline events.

In the beginning: It wasn’t until 2017 when DreamHack Mumbai became the first international tournament to grace the country. Since then, things have been on a massive increase. In 2018, India hosted three international events: ELS One Mumbai, COBX Masters, and DreamHack Delhi. Prize pools for these events saw an increase of more than 180%, from just about $500,000 in 2018 to more than $1.5 million in 2019.

Reasons behind this shift: A major component contributing to this steep rise is due to PUBG Mobile, a game that is more than just a game in India. This country is at the forefront for downloads and player base.

It’s practically impossible to consider the game without its Indian player base, which only makes us wonder how esports will shape up for the country in 2020.

VIEWERSHIP FOR TOP TEN GAMES

StreamHatchet continues to bring the latest trends on viewership regarding the top ten most-streamed games. The games that continue to dominate the top three slots are all more than six years old each. But they maintain their position due to constant releases and loyal fan bases.

Top five

League of Legends (26,142,627 hours watched)
Minecraft (19,498,410 hours watched)
Grand theft Auto V (18,798,971 hours watched)
Fortnite (17,369,460 hours watched)
PUBG Mobile (16,189,520 hours watched)

Growing titles: Of those games on the list, FIFA showed the greatest increase with a 141% jump to 14 million hours watched. This is likely because of the TOTY winners announcement and event kickoff on January 6th. CS:GO went up by nearly 33% with just under 13 million hours watched and actually fell down one spot. Dota 2 held the Bukovel Minor, which generated some substantial viewership growth at 63.55% to more than 12 million hours watched.

Declining titles: Fortnite maintains its high placement despite declining nearly 8% in viewership to 17 million hours watched. PUBG Mobile dropped 7.23$ to 15 million hours watched, but maintained its spot on the list. Escape from Tarkov dropped 53.80% to just short of 15 million hours watched, a big dive over last week when it first hit the #1 spot.