Many people make the mistake of believing that eSports and online competitive gaming has only been around for the last few years. It is true that over the past decade, the medium has exploded in terms of its popularity, but it has been around for a much, much longer time than that.
The origins of online gaming can be traced back all the way to the 1950s, even if it did look a lot different back then in comparison to the high-tech and expensively produced games that we see people playing now. The technological progress that we experienced throughout the 90s can be thanked for that.
Let’s take a journey through the history of online competitive gaming.
The Beginning
The 1950s are what many people believe to be the first-ever “age of computers”. This is because, at that time, a scientist known as Alexander Shafto Douglas happened to be working on what can be looked at as a pre-historic computer (in comparison to our modern computing systems).
The first actual multiplayer game was then presented on this computer back in 1958. It was called Tennis for Two – a game so popular and niche that it is still being played in arcades and on computers by retro gamers all around the world. This title is what many people consider to be the birth of eSports as it requires two players to go up against one another in a competitive fashion.
eSports Starts To Grow
The 60s to the 90s is what many people look at as the defining period for gaming in general, not just eSports. In 1972 the Stanford University computer science department hosted the first ever LAN party, whereby a group of gamers would sit side-by-side on their old computers playing games against one another, hoping to be crowned victorious. This sounds almost exactly the same as the massive eSports tournaments that are being hosted worldwide today, except on a much smaller scale.
As gaming has continued to grow in popularity, so has the scale of these competitive gaming tournaments. But the extreme growth that the industry has gone through, is not something that even those old Stanford computer science students would have predicted.
The eSports World Now
Today, online competitive gaming is a commonplace form of entertainment for many people around the world. In fact, not only can you play or watch it, you can also bet on it too – and many sites that make this betting available also feature an online casino sign up bonus to get you started.
The biggest tournaments are get broadcasted on television and are also available to Livestream for free on websites like Twitch and YouTube. They get millions of concurrent viewers, and those who come out victorious often get massive cash prizes.
The industry is lucrative, and many young gamers around the world are training non-stop to turn their passions into real career. The opportunity is there, an no one can predict just how fast the industry will continue to grow. Online gaming is absolutely massive right now, and there is just no telling how much bigger it could potentially get.
