This year marks a major milestone for the global e-sports market, which will for the first time exceed the billion-U.S. dollar revenue mark. According to a report by market research firm Newzoo, revenues generated by the industry will reach an impressive 1.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, a year-on-year growth of nearly 27 percent.  

As the 2019 International Dota2 Championships wrapped up in Shanghai, the city has set the goal of becoming the "world's e-sports hub". Andy Mok, a non-resident fellow from the Center for China and Globalization, said it is an explosive new industry and the potential economic of e-sports industry is exciting.  

"Because anybody can play, you can be young or old, male or female, tall or short. Anybody can potentially be a champion like this. You can play, you can watch by your smartphones, and that is creating an equal system that is expanding very rapidly," he said. 

The sector has come a long way with about 500 million people in China playing e-sports games and billions globally. And China will generate some 210 million U.S. dollars revenue in 2019, overtaking Western Europe as the second-largest region in terms of revenues. North America will be the largest e-sports market once again, boasting revenues of 409 million U.S. dollars.  

So where does all this money come from? The highest-grossing individual e-sports revenue stream worldwide is sponsorship, generating 456.7 million U.S. dollars in 2019, with the fastest-growing e-sports revenue stream by far being media rights. 

Meanwhile, enthusiastic fans of e-sports games bring huge opportunities for this industry. Global e-sports audiences will grow to 454 million worldwide in 2019, a year-on-year growth of 15 percent, among which 57 percent are from the Asia-Pacific region. Mok added that the game is free to play, but you can spend money to get different kinds of upgrades and value-added services.