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Esports has an identity problem and it will suffer until we've solved it.
For years we’ve tried to package it like traditional sports with jerseys, calling players athletes, commentators in suits and events and broadcast sets built to look like the Premier League or NBA.
But the reality is, esports fans aren’t sports fans. In fact, most care less about sports than the average person. So why are we still building products that look and feel like something they never wanted in the first place?
Fans in esports don’t stay loyal to teams the way football fans do. They follow games, stories and when a game shifts, so do they. We can try to fix it but that's the reality of how the ecosystem works. There's no point in fighting it or trying to fit it into something it's not.
The problem is that our industry keeps forcing a sports template onto an audience that doesn’t relate to it. We act surprised when loyalty is weak, when trophies and results don’t build community and when fans don’t spend. We’re building for the wrong customer.
Esports isn’t like traditional sports. Sure, it has a big competitive element, but really it’s about culture, entertainment and community.
If we want to build something sustainable, we need to stop copying and start creating products that actually feel authentic to gamers; content that entertains, not just recaps wins and losses, events that are underground and authentic, not the next Superbowl.
(This is Part 1 of 3 on esports audiences. Part 2 speaks about the differences per geograpic esports audiences and Part 3 on the differences between game titles)
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