Source: Statista

Gaming has long been sneered at by ‘real’ athletes. But in recent years, popular acceptance for eSport has risen and prize pools are skyrocketing. In a direct comparison to ‘traditional sports’ events, professional gaming tournaments can easily compete when it comes to the rewards teams can achieve if performing well.

More often than not, it’s true that gamers cannot claim the same physical fitness levels as football players nor the endurance of professional cyclists and therefore might not be considered “real” athletes. However, defining sports through these parameters means that beer-bellied darts players (whose skills are similar to the skills of gamers – based on hand eye coordination, concentration and nerves of steel) would not fit into the traditional definition of an athlete as well. At least monetary-wise, gamers have already reached the Olympus of professional sports.