Web 3 is in the news every day with meteoric and exponential growth. Cryptocurrencies are in the news perpetually and leave us wondering where this growth will go.

Bitcoin alone has famously gone up and down thousands of dollars for a single coin. This explosive growth trend will continue in another massive industry: gaming.

Gaming has been steadily increasing in popularity since its inception but has exploded in the last decade. In 2011, the gaming industry was valued around $38 billion, but in 2022 the gaming market is estimated to be a massive $95 billion.

In response to the gaming boom, manufacturers of major products now even ensure their products are gaming compliant. LG flagship TVs are loaded with high-hertz technologies and frequently G-Sync and Freesync, which match the number of frames your screen runs with the number output by the -PC or console.

Many phones now come with gaming tech equipped, and consoles are cheaper and more powerful than ever. The list of areas gaming is involved in keeps growing, and it’s safe to say gaming has become ubiquitous.

From this exploding popularity came the rise of Esports. What was once a niche hobby for a few competitive people is now a billion-dollar industry. Esports now has a viewership of over 300 million, and some even say upwards of 400-600 million!

Wielding the power of millions of consumers, gaming and Esports will accelerate the growth of Web 3, and likewise, Web 3 will take gaming and Esports to new heights.

Tournaments Are More Dependable and Trustworthy

The game’s creators always make the most popular tournaments, but, eventually, this could change. For tournaments to become more commonplace, they need to be more trustworthy and credible. However, there are some significant obstacles for tournament creators.

First, creating tournaments is costly. Small indie studios have run world championship tournaments for $67,000 but bigger tournaments can quickly turn a conservative budget into a 7-figure behemoth.

There are great returns if the event takes hold, but if it doesn’t, the host or hosting organization could quickly end up in the red.

Second, tournaments are also hard on the players, both financially and with time obligations. Tournament holders risk gambling their finances in the beginning, but this risk is often mitigated using seed money, allowing the players to participate. Another option is the tournament owner charges audience members and uses advertising or sponsorships.

As a last resort to generate an audience, tournament holders may charge nothing with no ads at the tournament, but without proper funding, they will likely fail.

So, seed money is a natural solution that improves their tournament’s chances, but this moves some of the pressure from creators to players.

Players cannot guarantee their money will come back to them, even if they win the tournament unless it’s already an established organization running games. They also have no way to ensure the tournament they’re signing up for is real! If it’s not reputable, the tournament could easily be a scam.

Web 3 gives security to both the tournament holder and the players. Using a smart contract, tournament holders could guarantee the players’ participation and the entrance fee. This contract would hold the players liable if they didn’t show or cheated. It would also be easier to ensure the players are who they say they are.

Players could guarantee prize money because the blockchain would only recognize the contract as valid if there were real collateral to give to the other party. With a guarantee of money, players could more readily play at local tournaments because of the added trust.

More Money for All Players, Not just Top Players

The best players will always make more money because more people will watch them play.

However, aspiring competitive players will have a legitimate wealth creation ladder.

Tournaments will become more readily available, allowing lower-level players to make money at lower levels. A player’s reputation is easier to build because there are more opportunities outside the main events.

Tracking stats will also be extremely easy for people across games because they will likely be able to keep a static username that never changes. They could create different tags and usernames but then leave them all under a “library” by their preferred username, which is tracked across every game.

With tournaments, reputation-building events, and content creation, it’s likely that competitive gaming will explode as the most accessible competitive environment in the world.

Esports Is Going To Take the Next Step

Esports, gaming, and streaming should be more accessible than ever. Take content creation. Content creation comes with some risks for the creator at the lowest level. One such risk is swatting.

Swatting is when a person calls in a swat team to “swat” the creator while streaming live. If they so choose, the streamer would have an easier time hiding their identity from the public so they could wait to build the resources to go public. Protection measures are expensive today, but remaining private would be much easier and cheaper on Web 3.

These are just a few ways the Web 3 will drastically impact Esports and gaming. If you want to continue to learn more, come to the W3BX Expo so you can become an early adopter and maximize your opportunity to follow the exponential growth curve.