Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime, Major League Gaming CEO Sundance DiGiovanni, TwitchTV COO Kevin Lin, and Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey spoke on the "explosion of eSports" at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference recently. Image credit: SLY Photography

　　The panel came together after last year's inaugural eSports panel at the conference, which saw DiGiovanni and Morhaime joined by Evil Geniuses Owner Alex Garfield and Starcraft personality Sean "Day9" Plott.

　　Disclosure: the panel was moderated by Rod Breslau, author of this post.

　　The four came to talk about the meteoric growth of eSports and competitive gaming within the last year, which saw record-breaking viewership from MLG, as well as Riot Games' Season 2 Championships.

　　"When we launched TwitchTV, we were at 5 million monthly unique viewers showing predominantly eSports content," Lin said on Twitch's own record-breaking growth. "By February 2012, we were up to 14 million uniques, and now this February we were just shy of 30 million uniques per month."

　　"On an event weekend, we'll see at its peak 6.5 million people tune in, 400,000 to 500,000 people concurrently," DiGiovanni added. "While we can't relate that directly in a apples-to-apples way to traditional TV, in the 18-24 age market, we weigh out very favorably towards things like BCS games, and ESPN's broadcasts of the NBA and baseball."

　　A video of the presentation is available below.

　　You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

　　Click To Unmute

　　7th MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

　　How Alan Wake II Made Me Face My Fear of Horror Games

　　GameSpot's Top 10 Games of 2023Thompson: The Pop Culture Icon’s Strange Legacy - LoadoutFirearms Expert’s FAVORITE Weapons Of 2023State Of Gaming Handhelds In 2023How Lies of P Cracked the Souls GenreLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Ichiban Kasuga Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Saeko Mukoda Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Chitose Fujinomiya Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Eric Tomizawa Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Kazuma Kiryu Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Yu Nanba Character Spotlight Trailer

　　Share

　　LinkEmbed

　　Size:640 × 360480 × 270

　　Start at: End at: Autoplay Loop

　　Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

　　Sign up or Sign in now!

　　Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

　　This video has an invalid file format.

　　00:00:00

　　HTML5

　　Auto HD High Low

　　Report a problem

　　Sorry, but you can't access this content!

Please enter your date of birth to view this video

　　By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's

　　Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

　　enter