The 10 biggest misconceptions about the Chinese esports industry

While the esports industry’s size and growth in the past decade are hard to ignore, it’s also worth noting that its unique history and cultural context within China might be misunderstood by some. So here, we look at 10 misconceptions about the Chinese esports industry.

1) Chinese esports is an untapped market

People think that Chinese esports is an untapped market, and it’s not. According to iResearch, China’s esports market size was estimated to be 167.3 billion RMB (24.4 billion USD) in 2021 and increased 13.6% in 2022, so it’s easy to see why people would think this way. However, the fact of the matter is, China has been one of the world’s largest markets for esports.

Moreover, the explosion of mobile esports in 2019 alone, when they hosted their first League of Legends tournament, has meant that their audience has only increased since then. The number of professional gamers in China has also skyrocketed in recent years as more people became interested in playing games competitively.

2) China is a homogenous market

Contrary to popular belief, China is not a homogenous market. A large part of this misconception stems from the fact that most Chinese esports players and fans are from large cities like Shanghai and Beijing. While it’s true that these cities have a lot of influence on what happens in China’s esports world, there are still many other smaller cities that produce excellent players and fans.

A large part of this misconception stems from the fact that most Chinese esports players and fans are from large cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

Another reason for this misconception is that a lot of people don’t know about the huge variety of esports games available in China. There are hundreds of different games played by millions of people every day, including the most popular esports titles like DOTA 2, Overwatch, Player Unknown Battlegrounds (PUBG), and League of Legends – many of which are not represented in English-language media at all.

3) If you don’t speak Mandarin, you can’t get into the industry in China

This isn’t true. In fact, most of the people who work in esports in China are from other countries – and many of them don’t speak Mandarin. An example is Lee “Scout” Ye-chan from South Korea, the MVP of Edward Gaming and competes in League of Legends. Another is Song “Rookie” Eui-jin, also a League of Legends player and has a championship win in front of his fellow Korean countrymen while bringing a Chinese team’s flag. Song studied Mandarin after he transferred to China.

Read More at https://daoinsights.com/opinions/the-10-biggest-misconceptions-about-the-chinese-esports-industry/