The Essence of Esports: Niko Partners in 2024 Esports World Cup and 2024 New Global Sports Conference

During its eight weeks, Riyadh solidified its position as an esports and entertainment hub, attracting more than two million visiting fans and more than 175 thousand tickets sold at the Esports World Cup (EWC) festival in Boulevard City. This marks an important milestone in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)’s journey to success, as the esports and gaming landscape in the country has undergone a tremendous transformation in recent years. Esports was once a niche interest in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and has grown into a dynamic and influential cultural phenomenon, as we observed in the first of this 3-part blog post series on EWC.

A new era in gaming, esports and entertainment has been unveiled at the world’s largest gaming and esports festival. According to Ralf Reichart, CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF), EWC 2024 was a huge success, hosting a total of 1,500 athletes and more than 200 clubs, with a record-breaking $60 million prize pool across 22 tournaments and 21 titles. . The entire 8-week event has recorded over 500 million viewers, over 250 million hours of content consumed across all platforms, with the highest peak concurrent viewership of 3.5 million during the League of Legends grand final between T1 Korea and Top Esports China.

This incredible achievement further cements EWC’s position as a leading event in the global esports calendar, demonstrating the huge popularity and growth of competitive gaming in KSA, the MENA region and globally. With the huge success of the inaugural EWC, EWCF has confirmed the second edition of the EWC will return to Riyadh in July and August 2025.

Lisa’s important moments at EWC 2024 and New Global Sport Conference 2024
The EWC closing ceremony was held on August 25, which also featured the Esports Awards 2024 and the New Global Sport Conference 2024. At the Closing Ceremony, KSA’s hometown heroes, Team Falcons, were awarded the $7 million Club Championship prize and the EWC Club Championship Cup. Interestingly, Team Falcons has fielded its roster in 18 of the 22 championship matches, making them the most represented Club in the EWC.

Niko Partners was completely immersed in the excitement of EWC. Lisa Hanson, CEO and President of Niko Partners was present at the New Global Sport Conference (NGSC) and EWC last weekend.

Lisa at the 2024 New Global Sports Conference.

NGSC 2024 was held between August 24 and 25, themed “The Future of Fandom”, and brought together leaders from various industries, including esports, gaming, business, sports and entertainment.

Panel from left to right: Toshimoto Mitomo, Executive Vice President and CSO, Sony Group Corporation; Sir Leonard Blavatnik, Founder of Access Industries and Owner of DAZN; Lisa Hanson, CEO and President of Niko Partners; Shuji Utsumi, President & COO, SEGA Corporation; and John Hanke, CEO of Niantic Inc.

Lisa moderated the panel “Navigating Growth in Gaming & Entertainment: Consolidation, Innovation, New Markets & New Fans” on August 24th. Honorable panelists include:

• Toshimoto Mitomo, Executive Vice President and CSO, Sony Group Corporation
• Shuji Utsumi, President & COO, SEGA Corporation
• Sir Leonard Blavatnik, Founder of Access Industries and Owner of Dazn
• John Hanke, CEO, Niantic Inc.

This panel covered a variety of important topics in the gaming and wider entertainment industry, including:

• Analyze current industry consolidation trends and their impact on the gaming and esports ecosystem
• Discusses the challenges and opportunities in expanding into emerging markets, particularly MENA, one of the fastest growing gaming and esports markets we monitor.
• Provides insight into balancing traditional gaming experiences with new forms of interactive entertainment
• Addressing the evolving relationship between gaming, esports, and traditional sports entertainment. Localization plays an important role in attracting local audiences and maintaining a loyal fan base (read more about the importance of localization in MENA gaming here in our free whitepaper published jointly with the Saudi Esports Federation).

KSA is redefining esports consumption with iconic pop culture

In addition to the competitive esports nature of EWC, the festival also offers a wide variety of entertainment options for global fans, from music concerts to celebrity esports events. This shows that esports is more than just a moment of entertainment during the pandemic lockdown; this solidifies esports as a new avenue for mainstream entertainment. EWC has seen a variety of strategic partnerships forged, reflecting the growing popularity of esports recognized by global brands, who are seeking to engage with esports fans while reaching new audiences.

Alongside the series of esports action, a series of music events were organized by Saudi music entertainment company MDLBEAST for 7 consecutive weeks, between 4 July to 15 August, with the final week occupied by the closing ceremony of EWC 2024. The weekly music concerts are known as ‘AFT_r’, with a lineup featuring local and international music artists. Some of the artists include rappers Wiz Khalifa and Kid Cuti, international DJs such as Steve Aoki, DJ Snake, R3HAB, and Sebastian Ingrosso, who is also a gaming enthusiast.

Neymar and his team were crowned champions in the Counter-Strike 2 and Tekken 8 matches

Before the closing ceremony, on August 20, a celebrity esports event match was held at the Qiddiya Arena on Boulevard Riyadh City. Brazilian football sensation Neymar Júnior, who recently moved to Saudi Pro League champions Al Hilal in the summer of 2023, competed in several esports matches with Team Neymar, who went on to win Counter-attack 2 And Tekken 8 show matches. Neymar’s presence at the EWC bridges the gap between traditional sports and esports, and attracts fans from both worlds.

EWC is one of the many global events that Niko Partners is proud to attend and participate in. We look forward to participating in exciting upcoming gaming and esports events in the future as we continue to be at the forefront of industry trends and developments. Check out Niko’s esports research products and services. Keep up with the Asian & MENA esports scene via NikoIQ, our intelligent online dashboard. We are ready to discuss your needs for bespoke research through our Custom Research & Consultancy Service.