Could 2025 bring in an esports spring?

No one in the gaming or esports industry would tell you that 2024 wasn’t a challenging year. A public mantra in the industry was ‘Survive ‘Til 25.’ 

The financial correction created by ‘esports winter‘ carved away at margins and cut through threads companies were holding on to.

However, despite a myriad of difficulties, there are signs that the esports industry may be finally finding itself from under the weight of 2023’s esports winter forecast — and the first glimpses of profitability.

If there was any silver lining throughout the ‘esports winter’, it is that player salaries and economic expectations are now more closely aligned with real revenues, rather than being paid and based on raised capital. 

Despite the industry’s ‘cold weather’, Team Liquid Co-CEO Steve Arhancet told Esports Insider the organisation never once considered changing its focus on competitive gaming.  

This new landscape helped Team Liquid reduce athletic operating expenses while expanding into more games and increasing its competitive rosters to over 15 titles going into 2025.

The organisation’s major milestones, such as winning Dota 2’s The International 2024, taking silver at the inaugural Esports World Cup, clinching League of Legends’ LCS Spring Split and reaching the M6 finals with its Mobile Legends Bang Bang roster contributed to growth in fandom and its budget sheets in 2024.

Team Liquid starts the year celebrating not only its 25th anniversary as an esports organisation but on the wings of its first year declaring EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) profitability since the organisation’s start in 2000.

Team Liquid’s Co-CEO quietly revealed the org’s EBITDA profitability first in Esports Insider’s 2024 year-end reflection piece. In a follow-up interview, Arhancet said that 2024 was “one of the best performing years athletically and financially for Team Liquid.”

Arhancet noted that this was also achieved by holding on to the organisation’s belief in ROI through competitive endeavours, rather than pivoting to other business models.

“Our 2025 plans are truly aligned with our main quest: to be a leader in esports, a global organisation with multi-generational fandom,” Arhancet said. “We’ve been strategic and thoughtful about the Team Liquid brand, maintaining our premium in the market as reflected with the high quality of our partners, like Coinbase, Honda, Alienware, SAP and many others.”

In a recent interview with Digiday, 100 Thieves and its brand partners detailed the organisation’s refocus on esports, yielding an alleged 75% partnership re-signing rate in 2024. 100 Thieves attributed leadership and sponsorship approach changes to the company’s improved business performance in 2024.

The industry has felt a cooling off of interest from brands for esports-related activations and partnerships. However, the Digiday article suggests an upward trend in marketers’ interest in esports. 100 Thieves as an operation significantly reduced its own esports footprint, however, its partnerships and brand activation campaigns have flourished. 

In 2024 alone, Esports Insider published over 635 stories that fell within its Partnerships & Sponsorships category. 2025 could bring back brand confidence in competitive gaming, if these success stories are indicators of things to come.

Outside of explicit partnerships within competitive gaming, brands have also continued to invest heavily in gaming experiences, especially on UGC platforms like Fortnite and Roblox — either less vocally as before or by taking more operations in-house.

Spirits brand Chivas Brothers brought in James Kent, formerly of EFG, as Global Senior Brand Manager – Ballantine’s Gaming & Esports.

“I’m lucky to have joined a brand that has already seen the opportunity within the gaming/esports space and will continue to invest into it,” Kent told Esports Insider over email.

“It’s safe to say that there is continued interest and commitment to gaming and esports,” Kent said.

Esports has always faced challenges with generating revenue. Historic business models have been restrictive to the types of deals that teams and organisers can sign, all while giving fans access to all content for free.

According to Esports Charts, last year’s top viewership rankings for international events were slightly more diverse than in 2023, highlighting the growth of more esports scenes.

“Although the final statistics for 2024 have yet to be fully confirmed, early indicators suggest that this year has been more successful than 2023 in terms of esports livestream viewership.” Esports Charts Chief Sales Officer, Sergii Rudenko, told Esports Insider late last year. 

He continued: “Notably, Worlds 2024 set a new peak concurrent viewership record (excluding Chinese platforms), marking a historic milestone in the esports industry.”

Titles like VALORANT, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2 broke through to the top of the industry’s viewership this year. MLBB and LoL viewership calmed slightly from last year’s peaks. However, the titles still maintained their dominance at the top of the list. 

Overall, co-streaming has also created a positive industry trend — boosting viewership while reaching new audiences through a streamer’s ability to co-create content tailored for their viewers. However, it also brings additional challenges for studios and official broadcasters.

“Co-streaming has been a major force in esports this year, which underscores the need for innovation in the official broadcast space to keep audiences hooked,” highlighted Esports Charts CEO Artyom Odyntsov.

Added competition for engagement and attention should drive official broadcasts and studios to innovate their product and content, otherwise they risk being overtaken by the co-streamers themselves. 

This is a good rivalry to have if you’re an esports fan. The more broadcasts, the more choices viewers have to settle in and watch a stream that resonates with them the most.

However, game developers and tournament organisers mustn’t use co-streaming as an opportunity to streamline official broadcasts or, in some cases, remove them altogether.

Several Western esports organisations shifted further attention to East Asian markets in 2024. Teams like Fnatic and Team Liquid expanded into mobile esports, notably MLBB, and found success in significantly enhancing their visibility and engagement in the region.

Odyntsov suggested that as more teams continue to tap into the growing mobile gaming scene, “the increase in viewership suggests that this trend is only going to gain momentum in 2025 and beyond, further blending Eastern and Western esports cultures.”

Despite it being ‘winter’, alternative events sprung up around the industry in 2024 to great success.

Days earlier, esports personalities Marc Robert ‘Caedrel’ Lamont and Eefje ‘Sjokz’ Depoortere launched The League Awards, an award show solely focused on celebrating the League of Legends ecosystem. The event peaked at 37,044 viewers, according to Esports Charts and from most accounts was an enjoyable experience.

The incredibly ambitious and controversial Esports World Cup garnered more (decidedly measured) mainstream coverage than any other esports event to date. If nothing else, Saudi Arabia’s investments in gaming and esports have given the esports community something to talk about.

Not to mention the country’s appointment as the official host for the Olympic Esports Games in 2025 and over the next 12 years.

Looking ahead into 2025, last year highlighted that the esports industry is an agile, scrappy and resourceful beast — not the kind to lay down and sleep through the winter. Removed from its business goals and challenges, it is a community driven by a passion for gaming, competition and camaraderie.

Esports has overcome mainstream critiques, led innovations in live online entertainment broadcasts and delivered new experiences for brands and audiences alike, sometimes on a shoestring budget.

The start-up of ecosystems has been built by hundreds of people who embody a ‘one-more-game mindset’. With any luck, 2024 will be the end of the industry’s cooldown and 2025 brings in a new dawn.