It’s no secret to anyone how big the eSports industry has become. The popularity of eSports competitions has grown immensely in the past few years, so much so that eSports viewership is beginning to rival that of traditional sports tournaments. In fact, more people tuned in to watch the League of Legends World Championship finals last year than the Super Bowl.
Recent reports have highlighted that eSports viewership has increased significantly during the pandemic. At the time of writing, Newzoo has reported that the global eSports audience has risen to 495 million people in 2020, an increase of 11.7% from last year, and it is estimated that the number of eSports viewers globally will grow to 646 million by the year 2023.
Being developed by the same company responsible for the tremendously successful Halo franchise, expectations for Destiny were set high but it has yet to achieve the premier league status of its ‘older brother’ in the competitive gaming world. While there is a buzzing competitive scene within the Destiny 2 community, it hasn’t yet reached the superstar status of other games such as League of Legends and Dota 2 in eSports. With the recent release of Beyond Light
The Rise of Destiny
Destiny first released on PlayStation and Xbox back in 2014 and was very popular among fans of online multiplayer. It was well received by fans who adored it’s fun gameplay loop, beautiful environments, as well as the wide variety of gameplay modes such as Crucibles, raids and its story missions.
While Destiny 2 is a very popular online game, it has a lot of other major titles to compete with. Over the years eSports has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry and some of the largest brands in the world have formed lucrative partnerships with eSports teams, such as Coca-Cola, BMW, and Red Bull, to name but a few. Even the online casino industry is
getting in on the action, offering players the opportunity to play Destiny 2 News slots games.
Despite the fact that Bungie has always had a strong presence in the world of competitive gaming, the developers have never made the claim that Destiny 2 was intended to be an eSport. While the highest rung of professional eSports players and teams have immense support from a wide variety of sources i.e. sponsorships, coaches, top of the line gaming equipment, as well as huge support from their fans who encourage and motivate these players, there is nothing stopping Destiny 2 from becoming the next big thing in eSports. The game has an extremely dedicated fanbase, who believe very strongly that Destiny is a highly competitive game and that its style of gameplay is an ideal candidate to be the world’s next big eSport.
Too much grinding?
At the present moment, Destiny 2 has but only a small presence within the world of competitive gaming. The fan base regularly hosts minor eSports tournaments and other events. The core gameplay mechanics of Destiny are very refined which lends itself well to competitive scenarios, but the main thing holding Destiny back from being the next major eSports is the gaming community’s perception of what the game is really like. For most gamers, the main appeal of the game is its rpg elements. There is a lot of character grinding, story missions and weapons and armour to collect. Naturally, fans are apprehensive about all of these core elements of the game being completely stripped away in favour of traditional PvP gameplay found in most other first person shooters. Due to this, the fan base is split on the issue of whether or not Destiny 2 should be included in competitive eSports tournaments.
Conclusion: will Destiny 2 ever become a major player in the eSports world?
When you think about it, the first Destiny game was only released in 2014 and its sequel in 2017, so it is still relatively new within the competitive gaming space. There is demand for a stronger eSports involvement and the potential is there too, so we ask you to watch this space in the coming years.
