Almost $2 Billion Has Been Invested in Esports in Q1 of 2018 Alone
According to The Esports Observer, around $2 billion in investments has already been raised by esports companies during Q1 2018. Those are disclosed investments alone—there may be more than that.
The biggest slice of the pie by far was contributed by Tencent Holdings. This company invested around $1.1 billion into Douyu TV and Huya TV, two Chinese livestreaming companies.
Echo Fox investors’ group Vision Esports managed to raise $38 million in funding during the same time period. Team Vitality brought in $3.1 million, and FanAI raised $2 million.
These figures are quite incredible when you compare them to last year’s. During Q1 2017, the total amount of disclosed funding raised for esports was a little more than $100 million. At the time, that seemed like a lot—but compared to $2 billion, it pales. In fact, for the entire year of 2017, around $2 billion in funds were raised. That has already been raised for Q1 of 2018 alone.
We can hardly imagine how much funding will be raised for the entirety of 2018. We’ll keep you posted as the year unfolds. It’s exciting to see interest in esports increasing exponentially like this!