Video PDF
Video PDF
Video PDF
4 CHAPTER 1
From Sports to Traditional Esports
12 CHAPTER 2
Beyond Traditional Esports: The Transition to Competitive Mobile Gaming
The Evolution
Where Competitive Mobile Gaming Is Today
Types of Organized Competition to Incorporate in Mobile Games
Survey: Amazon Appstore Developers on Competitive Mobile Gaming
23 CHAPTER 3
Best Practices
26 CHAPTER 4
About Amazon GameOn
INTRODUCTION
We are wired for competition and connection. Nothing in today’s
world exemplifies this more than professional sports. Every Sunday
millions of Americans turn on their favorite NFL team’s game and
cheer for them to win. We gather in our living rooms and sports
bars, and wear our favorite team’s clothing to showcase our pride.
The joy of a shared experience leads us to spend Monday at the
office telling stories about the game we watched the day before. We
love to relive the thrill of victory or the crushing feeling of defeat.
3
CHAPTER 1
How did our love for competition evolve from sports like football
into a stand-alone industry called esports? In this chapter, we’ll
cover the brief history of how esports began, the content play
around esports, who is watching and playing, and more.
Competitive gaming has been around almost as long as video
games themselves. Early competitive games like Tennis for Two
and Pong involved friends challenging each other. The innate
competitive nature of games resulted early on in the first video
game competition in 1972 at Stanford University where students
played an “Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics” and could win a year’s
subscription to Rolling Stone.
Like all industries, the Internet changed gaming. Players were finally
able to compare scores, share strategies, and build a community
thanks to features like message boards. And in 1997, the Red
Annihilation tournament for first-person shooter Quake was
considered to be the first real instance of esports, with more than
2,000 participants competing for a chance to win a Ferrari that had
been owned by John Carmack, the lead developer for Quake. A few
weeks after the tournament, The Cyberathlete Professional League
was founded.
5
From South Korea to North America, esports transformed into a true
spectacle in the first decade of the 21st century. More international
CENTURY
tournaments were being held, with prize money increasing into
the six figures. Professional gaming teams like NRG Esports were
formed, drawing in stadium-sized crowds and loyal fans.
That’s where live streaming services come into play. With services
like Twitch, YouTube, Niconico, and Huya, esports has quickly built a
loyal following and fanbase around the world, eliminating the need
for geographic proximity and physical stadiums.
6
Here’s an overview of four of the
biggest live streaming services:
TWITCH
YOUTUBE
7
NICONICO
HUYA BROADCASTING
8
WHO IS WATCHING? WHO IS PLAYING?
We all play games for a variety of reasons, but after talking to
fellow players at the Amazon headquarters, one thread remains
consistent: games provide a sense of belonging. They naturally
bring us together in communities of like-minded people, leading “I love gaming because
to strong bonds and long-lasting relationships. Competitions and
I love to interact and
tournaments foster socialization, networking, and team spirit.
share a passion with
They also speak to our deep-rooted obsession with besting our my friends and the
peers. We constantly measure ourselves against each other, from
communities that
comparing test scores as students to salaries, jobs, and titles as adults.
follow those games.”
In addition to this desire to belong and compare ourselves against
others, esports players and fans also share the following traits and
behavior. The data below comes from our friends at Newzoo, the
leading provider of market segment intelligence covering the global
games, esports, and mobile markets.
In 2016, Twitch viewers spent Of the 165 million esports enthusiasts, APAC The number of occasional viewers
(Asia Pacific) will get just over half of them globally has grown from 160 million
in 2016 to 215 million in 2018, and
will reach over 300 million by 2021.
Esports enthusiasts watch 22% of men aged Of the 200+ million occasional viewers
and esports enthusiasts worldwide,
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THE COMMUNITY ENGAGED IN ESPORTS
Competition brings people together into communities that have the
power to create strong bonds and long-lasting relationships. People
from all over the world can connect with each other, developing
friendships that begin with gaming but have the potential to extend
to daily, meaningful interactions.
For example, Andy Ta, better known as “Smoothie,” has met some
of his best friends through gaming.
Esports can also help break the ice when someone is new to a city.
And for some, friendships forged through gaming can even turn
into romance. Redditor Shaushka says, “I met my boyfriend through
Dota 2. He would play occasionally with my ex and we became
friends through our mutual love of all things awesome: Doctor Who
and other TV shows, anime, and games!”
10
THE ROLE OF BRANDS IN
TRADITIONAL ESPORTS
More than 600 esports sponsorship agreements have been
made since the beginning of 2016, according to Nielsen
market intelligence. Brand investments like media rights,
ads, and sponsors generated over half the revenue in the
past and should generate over half the revenue moving
forward as well.
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CHAPTER 2
You’ve already spent the time and Earned traffic is better than paid Competition brings your players
money building your game, and traffic. Competition can cultivate together more often and they spend
competition can make it better. engagement without having to more time in your app. It provides a
Rather than adding additional, new persuade players to click on an quality way to engage fans, leading
features into your roadmap each year ad. And, your existing players will to a higher chance of retaining and
to improve your game, competition is continue to help you recruit more re-engaging them.
a DIY, simple addition to make your fans by inviting friends and family
game new again and extend your to compete against.
investment.
13
Here are some examples of developers adding competitive
elements to their mobile games:
GEAR.CLUB
WORD FIENDS
14
COOKING CRAZE
GUNS OF BOOM
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WHERE COMPETITIVE
MOBILE GAMING IS TODAY
Mobile games with competition in their DNA are growing in popularity
across the globe. The number of competitive mobile games in the top
100 games on iOS grew 13% from 2016 to 2017, according to Newzoo.
Today, half of the top 10 grossing mobile games are competitive, with
Honor for Kings, Fantasy Westward Journey, and Monster Strike taking
the top three spots on iOS worldwide.
ARENA OF VALOR
16
HEROES EVOLVED
17
TYPES OF ORGANIZED There are many different ways to include competition in mobile
games, each one with pros and cons. Choosing the type of
COMPETITION TO
tournament, whether it be leaderboards or double elimination,
INCORPORATE IN depends on your game mechanics, how many participants will play,
MOBILE GAMES and what kind of user engagement you’re looking to promote.
LEADERBOARDS
LEAGUES
MULTI-ROUND COMPETITIONS
This structure acts more like a traditional tournament and works well
for engaging fans for a longer period of time.
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SINGLE AND DOUBLE ELIMINATION
ROUND-ROBIN
POOL
19
SWISS
20
Here’s what we discovered:
DEVELOPERS CITE A “LACK OF Of the developers who have never run an organized competition,
RESOURCES” AS THE MAIN REASON 31% point to a “lack of resources” as the number one cause. This
FOR NOT RUNNING ORGANIZED makes sense, as 62% of those developers are the only person on
COMPETITIONS their development team. Developers say they “simply do not have
the time.”
KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION What would make these developers more inclined to run a
WOULD MAKE DEVELOPERS MORE tournament? Two main themes emerged:
INCLINED TO RUN A TOURNAMENT
Knowledge of how to run a competition
21
LEADERBOARDS ARE THE MOST Leaderboards are the most popular type of tournament among
POPULAR TYPE OF TOURNAMENT developers who have run an organized competition. This makes
sense, as leaderboards are the most flexible competition style that
can be incorporated in most games. After leaderboards, 18% of
developers have used leagues, 14% have used round-robin, and
10% have used double elimination.
DEVELOPERS RUN ORGANIZED 31% of developers decided to run organized competitions in order
COMPETITIONS TO INCREASE USER to increase user engagement. They see competitions as another way
ENGAGEMENT to incent users to keep playing their games, and keep coming back.
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IS Of the developers who ran an organized competition, 24% said
PROMOTING THE TOURNAMENT the biggest challenge they faced was promoting the tournament.
After all, once you invest the time and effort into organizing a
competition, you want enough players to participate. And it can be
challenging to attract new users to a tournament.
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CHAPTER 3
To help make your competitions feel fair to the players, place users BRONZE
1-100
into tournament cohorts based on their skill level. For example,
you may want to create a tournament that only allows players with
a certain top score, location, or possession of a specific item. Test
out different approaches and see which ones create the most fun SILVER GOLD
environment for your players. 100-250 250-500
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UNLEASH YOUR COMMUNITY WITH
USER-CREATED TOURNAMENTS
Enable friends and family to easily challenge one another with user-
created tournaments. You could restrict invites to in-game only,
or allow users to share a link to invite others to play against them.
These user-created tournaments bring friends and family together
to share the gaming experience, ultimately adding more people to
the community around your game.
Make it easy for your players to share their results with others. After
all, competitive games are all about building a community. So, let
participants share their results on social media with their friends,
family, and followers. This will also help engage non-players and
promote your game to potential new players.
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CHAPTER 4
27
As of this writing, GameOn is being used by nWay, Game Insight,
Millennial Esports’ Eden Games, Umbrella Games, Nazara,
Mindstorm, Mokuni, Avix, and GameCloud Studios in games ranging
from casual to core across different genres.
GET STARTED
28
References
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https://kotaku.com/twitch-s-uphill-battle-for-japan-1738224810
https://info.kadokawadwango.co.jp/english/ir/pdf_kd/2015/20150806_02.pdf
http://technode.com/2017/03/31/chinas-live-video-streaming-market-grew-180-2016-report/
http://allchinatech.com/huyas-successful-series-a-proves-growing-popularity-of-live-streaming-more/
http://adanai.com/esports/
https://www.foxsports.com/buzzer/story/esports-explainer-league-of-legends-heroes-of-the-storm-hearthstone-cs-go-dreamhack-050616
https://blog.betway.com/esports/a-brief-history-of-esports-how-the-game-stream-went-mainstream/
http://www.businessinsider.com/youtube-has-made-its-biggest-esports-investment-yet-2017-3
http://www.esprts.com/4-8-billion-hours-spent-watching-twitch-in-2016
https://blitzesports.com/lol/video/45/smoothie-meeting-best-friends-games-growing-tdk-teaching-d
https://impulse.coreatcu.com/expanding-the-social-side-of-video-games-8eb334715ae1?gi=6f429efa24ad
https://www.reddit.com/r/GirlGamers/comments/3a9jty/out_of_curiosity_who_met_their_so_through_gaming/
http://tnl.media/esportsnews/2017/1/31/twitch-beats-tv-in-eleague-major-viewership
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First edition
April 2018
Thank you for reading!