Out on the town: How esports events drive cultural and economic impact | Playable Futures

This series of Playable Futures articles considers how the design, technology, people, and theory of video games are informing and influencing the wider world. You can find all previous Playable Futures articles here.

When a major esports event rolls into a city, there is an immediate contribution that goes far beyond the walls of the arena.

The economic and cultural opportunity large-scale competitive gaming events bring to their urban hosts are significant, and arguably deserve the attention of a greater spotlight, as much of the conversation around esports continues to focus on professional players, earnings, audience size, and those persistent comparisons with traditional sports.

ESL FaceIt Group's Bobby Hare is all too aware of what esports can do for cities. He stands as director of Host City Partnerships & Hospitality at the vast esports organisation, which holds events and series like Intel Extreme Masters (IEM), DreamHack and the ESL Pro League. In his role, he works building partnerships with cities keen to welcome large esports and gaming events, meaning understanding their aims and motivations, infrastructure, demographics, tourism, local educators, and more.

"Cities today are no longer just curious about esports," he explains. "Now they see the immediate impacts, with economic impact being a huge one. They see that opportunity for the local community. They see that our events are global and they attract a huge international audience of [in-person] visitors, with millions more watching online; seeing the destination hosting these huge events at the forefront of pop culture and digital generations' lives. And they see the numbers we now have around that economic impact.

"Cities today are no longer just curious about esports. Now they see the immediate impacts, with economic impact being a huge one"

Bobby Hare, ESL FaceIt

"For example, our recent IEM Cologne tournament delivered around $29 million of economic impact for the city. Obviously that's through visitors and tourism, accommodation, food and beverage, leisure travel and so on. And then in Texas, where we have IEM Dallas and DreamHack Dallas – that generates around $25 million in economic impact. IEM Rio 2022 generated $40 million for the city. So the numbers aren't small, and they're only going to grow. But esports events' contributions are increasingly going far beyond simply contributing to economies."

Today, esports – and its bringing together of online gaming, spectating, fandoms, live events, music, celebrity, and more – exists at the very heart of contemporary digital culture, and thus youth culture. That place in the cultural landscape and innate meaning to so many digitally native youngsters means esports has a very powerful pull. Indeed, increasingly hosting esports events speaks directly to being contemporary, cultural, technological, young, and connected – all things most cities around the world are keen to be associated with. Esports equally offers an appealing gateway through which to usher people to all manner of careers and life experiences, in and beyond gaming.

"What we are now seeing more of, and what's going to be more significant in the coming years, is this idea of community engagement and cultural legacy," says Hare. "We want to inspire the local community at our events, provide school groups and university students with free tickets and work placement opportunities to see what goes into these events, and what the possible career and roles are – in esports and games, but also in terms of all these skills that are transferable to other work, and all the roles behind an esports event. We can also help local organisations, charities and other groups with presence at these events, and engage with all the young people esports events bring.

"These large esports events really can provide this cultural relevance that younger people identify with and come to see, so there's this opportunity to meet those audiences at the event, in the heart of a community, and educate, or inspire, or connect them with whatever you're doing. And a big part of what's exciting there is bringing in people whose backgrounds or circumstances have kept them away from this world, and the opportunities within it, and parallel to it. Not everyone has access to a gaming computer to play in or discover this world. I hope the tangential, longer term legacy of this could be bringing that diversity of backgrounds into esports, and gaming, and tech. Cities are almost by default these very diverse places, and we can connect their inhabitants with so many opportunities."

Here it is worth pausing to consider how traditional sports leave legacy and impact in their cities, through grassroots development of the sports, through engaging local community groups, charities and educators with a view to elevating inhabitants' experience and prospects, and through connecting vast global audiences to local cultures.

"In more time I'd like to see esports events, teams and organisations prioritising the kind of grassroots legacy we see in traditional sports, which helps growth in so many directions, for communities, for cities, for esports, and more," Hare reflects. "I think increasingly we will see more permanent esports facilities as a standard part of city infrastructure.

"We're on that path, and these venues do exist, particularly in terms of smaller arenas and training facilities and so on – and we're working with partners like Qiddiya, as we see the emergence of new highly digital, entertainment-focused cities where esports and gaming distincts are built into their infrastructure from day one, with venues at the heart of all that – so that future's definitely coming. It's already underway. The opportunity there to deliver economic impact, cultural impact, and connecting with young people to educate and expose opportunities in esports, gaming, tech development, sport, events, and the wider opportunities in digital careers and creativity? That's all looking ever more possible in the future, because we're seeing the start of it now."

"I'd like to see esports events, teams and organisations prioritising the kind of grassroots legacy we see in traditional sports"

Bobby Hare, ESL FaceIt

The road ahead is marked by sizable opportunities, says Hare, but not without its obstacles. The most pressing might be awareness of esports, ecosystem, professionalisation, and its potential impacts within the state and other bodies that manage and represent cities.

"We could wait for a new generation to step into those roles," Hare considers, "but that might miss the opportunity. We need to seize it now, so across esports we're seeing this effort to educate and inform the decision-makers in cities – to allow all this potential to become real."

Daring to look even further into the future, there is a very real chance that esports could start to frame a great deal more than just competitive gaming.

"I think when you look further ahead, there's all sorts of interesting things, like the production and broadcast of esports increasingly leading convention across all sports. We're already seeing venues look to esports to consider how to be more digital, and offer more where real time visuals are integrated into these arenas. In terms of stadiums becoming more technological as part of this legacy, maybe we'll even be able to offer solutions to challenges like football's challenge with VAR right now.

"Ten or 20 years into the future? It's harder to predict where esports will be in terms of its culture and impact. You have to start to ask 'What will gaming be then?' What might sports have even become? With all the technological advances, and now AI, perhaps soon we won't be talking about esports as distinct from sports, but part of the same space – and then you start to think about how esports can deliver the same impact as traditional sports do now, where their in our lives from the start of our education onwards. And then we also start to think about where the player or athlete needs to be relative to where the event and venues are – and at that point you have to start to think about what cities themselves will mean if we can be remote from everything."

If cities do become more digital, remote, virtual places – and they surely will – then the ecosystem of esports might soon become the ecosystem of daily life.