Multiplayer shooters are seeing a rise in players registered, which is also being reflected in the number of viewers coming to watch the odd match here and there. Rainbow Six Siege, for example, has seen a 300 percent increase in the number of heads gazing at the live broadcasts. More progress is being made on the Olympic front as the Asian Games looks to work with Tencent by bringing six esports titles to the games.
Lenovo sieging rainbows
Rainbow Six Siege has more than 30 million registered players, which is quite the achievement for a game that was pretty much dead on arrival, but the developer has stuck with it, implementing improvements and drawing millions to the excellent team-based title. The Six Invitational has also seen a considerable bump in activity, with viewership being reportedly up approximately 300 percent in the previous quarter.
Other games with sizable registered player bases include The Division and Ghost Recon Wildlands, with 20 million and 10 million, respectively. Ubisoft is pushing forward with Rainbow Six Seige, signing up Lenovo as the named sponsor for PC and monitors. Like other companies in the business, Ubisoft knows it has to tap into the esports market.
Olympic esports in Asia
The Olympic Council of Asia has selected six esports titles, including League of Legends, Hearthstone, Clash Royale, and Pro Evolution Soccer for the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia. As reported by ESPN, the event is set to take place in August and September, working alongside Tencent to broadcast all the matches.
Halo Championship Series kicks into gear for the rest of 2018
After the Halo World Championships you might think things would die down for a while. Not so, and the roadmap from now through to November has been announced that sees two more global events, including a double-header with the Gears Pro Circuit.
In New Orleans in July, Halo and Gears of War pro players will come together under one roof as both games enjoy MLG organized global events. The Halo prize fund in NOLA stands at a healthy $250,000, while in September a second global event takes place in London at the Gfinity Arena. The prize fund here is a little less at $135,000, but there's still a lot of Halo to be played for an awful lot of cash.
Online play begins in June, and the season finals will take place in North America in November. Check out more over at Halo Waypoint.
VR esports continues to grow
VR is still very much a growing technology and community, but Oculus and ESL are forging ahead with a renewed partnership for the VR League.
As reported by the Esports Observer, the new season will expand to cover seven competitive VR titles.
"A new season of the VR Challenger League will kick off soon, with a new name, new games, and a new format," says the press release. "Oculus and ESL have partnered for the next season, and the competition has been re-branded the 'VR League.' The new season kicks off in May and will feature up to seven games over five months, including The Unspoken, Sprint Vector, Onward, Echo Arena, and the upcoming Echo Combat."
Upcoming live events
