eSports Sunday: The mobile eSports market just got a lot bigger thanks to Clash Royale

clay-royale

There’s only one game I personally play on my phone, and that’s Clash Royale. I started playing it after playing Clash of Clans for for way too long, but that’s what originally exposed me to Supercell which is without a doubt one of my favorite game studios. While I’ve been a fan of Clash Royale I never thought it would become a viable eSport for professional teams mainly because it’s a mobile-only game.

If you look at the top eSports they’re usually PC games, which also likely have a port to PS4 or XBox One, or both. With the exception of Hearthstone, when you see an eSport played professionally, the gamers almost always are playing on a PC. The keyboard and mouse combo coupled with a high-octane super computer have given PCs the edge when it comes to eSports.

But times, they are a changing, and now some of the top eSports teams have announced plans to add Clash Royale to the list of games they’ll be competing in:

36 esports organizations — including big names like Cloud9, Team Solomid and Tribe Gaming — recently announced that they would be joining up for this year’s Clash Royale league, making for a big vote of confidence from the still-nascent esports establishment. (Source – Forbes)

While this might not seem like a big deal, I think it does open up the eSports world to a whole new audience – the mobile gamer. This is a step I think we need to see the eSports world take if it’s going to become more relevant to a larger audience. I know, hardcore eSports fans will say I’m not giving Hearthstone enough credit, and yes – it is a mobile eSport that has taken off but it’s dwarfed by a sea of PC games like DOTA 2, Fortnite, and Overwatch.

Right now eSports has a huge viewership coming from PC gamers and more and more console players in the West but mobile has seen as much less interest than it has in China. I think with some of the biggest teams in the eSports world now jumping on to play Clash Royale the viewership for mobile eSports is going to grow even more.

In the report, Newzoo finds that PC and consoles will likely continue as esports strongholds in the West. However, viewers have demonstrated an appetite for mobile esports, such as Supercell’s Clash Royale. It was the most viewed mobile-only game on livestreaming platforms Twitch and YouTube Gaming in the fourth quarter of 2017, racking up 6.3 million and 15.8 million viewership hours respectively. Collectively, folks watched 1.3 million hours of Clash Royale tournaments in 2017. (Source – Venturebeat)

Now you have an excuse for spending your whole train ride to work playing games…because you’re not just playing games, you’re playing competitive eSports…or at least that’s what you can keep telling yourself 🙂

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton