This guest column comes from Phil Hübner, Chief Business Development Officer of esports platform Challengermode
The intersection of esports and music isn’t a new phenomenon. Esports has often used live acts in the opening and half time of its major live events, musicians have joined the wave of star athletes investing directly in esports teams, and both streaming services and record labels have been keen to sign deals with first gaming and, more recently, key esports stakeholders.
What we are seeing now is an acceleration of this trend, spurred on by just how astronomical esports’ industry’s growth has been in the last decade. Global esports revenues will hit $1.084bn in 2021 (a year-on-year rise of 14.5% from 2020) with esports competitions drawing in an audience of almost 500million worldwide outperforming many mainstream sports. Esports organisations are blooming into highly successful media brands, and are coming to the music industry with significant financial and cultural clout.
