With this growing popularity, UCO entered the realm of collegiate esports in 2018 with a competitive esports club comprised of more than 350 members, credit-bearing courses in esports and the development of a gaming arena. While scholarships aren’t available for UCO Esports at this time, students around the nation are receiving scholarships and even full tuition coverage to play competitive video games for their universities. colleges and universities have offered varsity level esports competitions for years, but there a few schools who are taking it a step further by adding academic courses as the industry’s boom drives demand for professionals - UCO being one of them. According to a study by HitmarkerJobs, the amount of job opportunities in the esports industry grew 87 percent from 2018 to 2019.ĭozens of U.S. In 2019, there were 201.2 million esports enthusiasts in stadium audiences around the globe and 252.6 million digital viewers at home. Compared to traditional sports, esports viewership is higher. Since then, esports has steadily gained momentum and developed into a multibillion dollar industry, even overshadowing many traditional sports such as soccer and baseball.

Esports has been around since the early 1970s, with games like Space Invaders, but rose to prominence in 1998 with Starcraft 2, owned by Blizzard Entertainment.

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