When I think of professional athletes, I can’t even name any, and I only know a few team names because of family members who take sports way too seriously. But for esports, even though I do not play competitive games, I could name many popular titles, such as Call of Duty, Need for Speed, League of Legends, and Fortnite. All of these have a huge fan base, not only for the game but for the streamers who play these games and do them well. There are even tournaments that pay a lot of money for playing these games and winning first place.
PewDiePie is one of the most popular streamers in the world, and he streams and talks about competitive gaming on Twitch, a streaming service that is popular among esports players. I think streamers are popular because of their reactions to certain things that are happening to them during the games. For a regular athlete, you don’t really see player reaction, unless they score a goal.
Streamers, however, you can see their facial expressions, their tone of voice, if they make a kill, or die, and the energy they put into their fans to give them a good show. I know that regular athletes love their fans as well, but streamers get more fans because they engage with them. The VCT, which is the Valorant Champions Tour, has a hub strictly for competitive matches of the game, and it brings hundreds of thousands of viewers for the global matches.
You wouldn’t be able to see American athletes going against other countries; we just go after other states’ teams. For streamers, though, you can be on an American team and go against a team in Japan or other countries, and I think that is why they are so popular, because it’s such a variety and there are so many esports that you can choose from, and surely one that anyone can find they enjoy watching. I think they both require skills to do well, but I think that esports takes a lot more skill, especially because it’s not only football or soccer. It won’t be long before streamers will be so popular that athletes will become obsolete.
