KARACHI: Riding the strong digital wave, Pakistani players are gearing up to enhance the country’s participation in the $200 billion global esports industry, local stakeholders say. 
With an aggressive growth globally, esports has evolved into a huge industry, with participants earning millions of dollars through various online events and tournaments. Some of the famous egames include Counter-Strike 1.6 and its versions, League of Legends, Overwatch, Fortnite, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), Defense of the Ancient (DOTA) and Hearthstone – Heroes of Warcraft. 
The size of the global games market was estimated at $175.88 billion in 2021 that is forecasted to grow with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.7 percent to reach $218.7 billion in 2024, passing the coveted $200 billion threshold in 2023, according to the 2021 global games market report issued by Newzoo, a Netherlands-based firm that provides games market insights and analytics. 
In Pakistan, revenue generation through video game segment is projected to hit $208.70 million mark in 2022, according to Statista, a US-based statistical data provider. It is expected to show a growth of 2.17 percent, resulting in a projected market volume of $227.40 million by 2026. 
“Pakistan is a huge market for esports and the 11th largest market for esports earnings in the world,” Moazzam Kamran, business transformation director at REDtone Digital Services that offers esports services through GameRED, told Arab News in an interview on Saturday. 
“Pakistani players are making it to the top in the world of esports like Tekken 7 World champion Arslan Ash (Arslan Siddiquie) and many other players. Our purpose is to uplift the domestic talent at the global level through multiple grassroot-level tournaments with the support of Pakistan’s strong digital landscape.” 
With around 65 percent young population, 116 million broadband and 113 million 3G/4G subscribers, Pakistan offers a huge market for online gaming. 
“We see investment coming in many startups in Pakistan. We have a good mix of young audience as 65-70 percent of our population is youth under the age of 35 and that is a huge market for esports that needs to be tapped,” Kamran said. 
Esports in Pakistan is developing a complete ecosystem that offers employment opportunities to Pakistan’s tech-savvy young generation. 
“ESports is a complete ecosystem and it is an aggressively growing industry with players, graphic developers and gaming asset producers at software houses, and caster or commentators comprising both girls and boys,” Kamran said. “It has now evolved to organize multimillion dollar tournaments in Pakistan and is providing opportunities to young players to earn in millions of rupees.” 
Pakistan esports stakeholders say with increasing penetration of mobile Internet, the number of esports players and participants would multiply in Pakistan. 
“Esports in Pakistan is aggressively growing in the backdrop of Digital Pakistan initiative. We have public and private sector support to promote egaming in Pakistan,” Kamran said further. “We expect that those who play casual sports will gradually come to the professional esports.” 
Launched by the former Imran Khan government in 2018, the Digital Pakistan initiative aims to promote connectivity, improve digital infrastructure, increase investment in digital skills, promote innovation and technology-based entrepreneurship. 
To a question about the implications of video gaming, including the violent content, the REDtone chief said only “through responsible play” negative impacts of egaming could be avoided. 
In Pakistan, the number of users in the video games segment is expected to increase to 50.9 million by 2026, while the user penetration will be 16 percent in 2022 and is expected to hit 20.6 percent by 2026, according to Statista and Newzoo. 
Internationally, the number of players will pass the 3-billion mark in 2022 and continue to grow at 5.6 percent to 3.3 billion by 2024.