One of the big announcements from last year’s BlizzCon was the addition of the new Overwatch League, a project Blizzard is using to help push competitive gaming and branding with a dedicated e-sports organization. It’s still a little early to say how successful it’s going to be, but analyst predictions have it pegged as a potential moneymaker of $100 million in its first year. That’s a lot of money for something where the game is already being made and balanced.
The prediction was made by investment management firm Morgan Stanley and outlines several potential futures, with the $100 million figure requiring about 72,000 regular viewers during the season. Morgan Stanley also predicts that much will depend on the future of e-sports as a viable market, depending on whether competitve gaming turns out to have a broad appeal or fails to connect with a larger paying audience.
