eSports are taking over! A few months ago, 57 million people tuned in to watch a professional video gaming (eSports) match. Just to put that into perspective, that’s three times more than the 2018 NBA finals. Many believe that calling video gaming a ‘sport’ is a stretch, but just recently, an eSports ‘athlete’ was put on the cover of ESPN. Today, we’ll go over the eSports stocks to watch in 2019 and give some background on this growing industry.
eSports Stocks to Watch in 2019
While these ‘athletes’ aren’t physically training and competing, they do spend countless hours perfecting their craft like any professional athlete. Just like the NFL, MLB, and the NBA, eSports have tens of millions of hardcore fans who pay to watch these gamers compete.
Twitch is the most popular platform for watching eSports and competitive gaming online. Early in 2018, the platform was getting just under 1 million average daily viewers. To put that into perspective, Twitch had more viewers daily in early 2018 than CNN and MSNBC. As this industry continues to grow at a rapid pace, investors are frantically searching for the eSports stocks that will give them their greatest returns. Let’s take a closer look.
Tencent Holdings Limited (OTC:TCTZF)
Tencent Holdings is based out of China and is centered around social media. While Tencent is mostly known for social media, it is currently the largest gaming company in the world. The eSports company currently owns Clash of Clans, Fortnite, and League of Legends. Also, Tencent’s gaming revenue is over 70% higher than Sony—which is in second place.
Tencent’s share prices have been on the decline since the beginning of the year, but eSports has begun picking up some serious steam in the second half of 2018. As global eSports competitions continue expanding, this stock could grow.
>> Amazon Workers in Europe Protest and Chant “We Are Not Robots”
According to Yahoo Finance, Tencent Holdings is currently trading at $38.35 a share, up +$1.32 (+3.56%).
Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI)
Activision Blizzard has been a long-time big hitter in the video game space. The Santa Monica-based video game developer owns five different major franchises, and its games are among the most widely played in the eSports world.
What makes this eSports stock stand out among the rest is it recently just struck up a deal with Disney (NYSE:DIS) to broadcast its ‘Overwatch League’ matches on primetime ESPN. This is huge news for the world of eSports and for Activision Blizzard.
Like Tencent, this gaming stock has also seen a slump in its share prices this year—especially the last three months—but this isn’t a true reflection of the momentum that the industry is gaining. According to Yahoo Finance, ATVI shares are currently trading at $50.39 a share, up +$0.34 (+0.68%).
Featured Image: depositphotos/leszekglasner
