When it comes to eSports and gaming, .GG domain names really are everywhere

This weekend I’ve been watching quite a bit of eSports since Twitchcon is going on and today San Francisco Shock competed (and won!) in the Overwatch Finals. One thing that’s been in my face for the last two days when I’m watching any eSports is, you guessed it, .GG domain names.

Now I know I have a wide range of people who read my blog. My guess is, most of the domain investors who read my blog probably aren’t watching a lot of eSports…so they likely don’t hear about .GG unless me or another domain blogger is talking about it.

That being said, the eSports industry is huge, and it’s growing fast, and yeah – safe to say they have no idea that there are blogs about domain names and domain investing…my guess is, the two worlds don’t really know about each other. Maybe I’m a weirdo but I love eSports since I’ve been a lifelong gamer and never a huge fan of traditional sports.

Given that I’ve seen .GG a zillion different times this weekend I thought I’d share some examples with all of you. First up – in the Overwatch League Grand Finals today, which was a huge event filling up an entire stadium in Philadelphia and came with a prize of $1.1M, had two teams, San Francisco Shock (the team I root for) and The Vancouver Titans, the Titans have their home online at VancouverTitans.gg.

Next up is NRG, one of the biggest names in eSports and the company that actually owns the San Francisco Shock eSports team. NRG is owned by the same people who own the Sacramento Kings and have some interesting celebrity investors like Shaq, Jennifer Lopez, DJ Tiesto and more. It’s safe to say NRG is the leader in the eSports world now since their teams have the best record.

And yes, you guessed it, NRG has their website on NRG.gg. Below is a photo from earlier today when NRG’s top team, the San Francisco Shock won the Overwatch League Finals:

The top player on the San Francisco Shock is a guy named Jay Won who goes by the Sinatraa in-game. When you look at Jay’s Twitter profile, he shares his email address, which is sinatraa(at)evolved.gg.

The top announcers at eSports events can bring in over $1M a year, and one of the most well-known announcers is Harry “LEGDAY” Pollitt, looking at his Twitter profile you’ll see a link to his Discord account, and yup – he’s using Discord.gg as you can see below:

So yes, it’s safe to say that if you watch eSports, you’re going to see a lot of .GG domains. Now that being said, I don’t want to give people the wrong impression, I still think that .COM is used more than .GG overall, period. While Harry’s using Discord.gg above, Discord has their brand on DiscordApp.com, and San Francisco Shock, my home team, you can find them on Shock2020.com.

I think plenty of companies will continue to brand on .COM – it’s not going anywhere and yes, everyone in the eSports world knows and loves .COM. That being said, they also know and love .GG, and that’s okay, it’s not a fad, it’s a domain extension that the eSports and gaming community has gravitated towards and I don’t see that slowing down or going away anytime soon.

Now like I said above, I know I have a wide range of people who read my blog. For the domain investors in the crowd, I probably wouldn’t buy .GG domains, I’d stick to .COM. For all the entrepreneurs out there starting companies in the eSports and gaming space, you already know that your audience knows and loves both .COM and .GG, so you’ve got some choices!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton