Esports Subscriptions

We’re stepping up a level now in our series of pages on watching games under a subscription. At a basic level there are plenty of ways to watch recorded gaming videos. There are also some great options in the list of where you can watch live game streaming, either of Esports contests or individuals showing off their skills (or lack of them!).

So here we’ll investigate the subscriptions dedicated to Esports. We’ll identify the best places to go, find out how much they cost (if anything), who is allowed or able to watch, and what you’ll need. 

Let’s start though with a video taster. This one below comes from NBC News and offers a good introduction to the world of competitive gaming.

Watch Esports

For the uninitiated, Esports are competitive events – sometimes for huge cash prizes – where teams or individuals battle it out in games for the top prize. It’s big business, with global tournaments and even stadium-type venues dedicated to the sport.

While the contests are fought by high-ability gamer’s and incredibly well-skilled teams, there’s a lot of interest from gaming fans in watching these tournaments. Some teams and players have built huge numbers of followers who fervently follow tournaments, performances, and results. 

Typically played games include titles from such genres as real-time strategy (RTS), fighting, first-person shooter (FPS), and multi-player online battle arena (MOBA.)

Esports events themselves are not normally run behind a subscription ‘wall’. They’ll normally be funded by ticket sales.

But for the people running the events there are various ways to maximize revenue. One of the ways they can do this is by creating unique content and experiences for viewers, who’ll then be willing to subscribe to get the benefits. The end result will be a loyal fan-base who won’t be tempted to go elsewhere.

As we’ve seen, subscriptions can generate recurring revenue that’s predictable and keeps coming. Two big benefits for any business.

So you can watch streamed Esports contests on some of the main video streaming sites, but there are a few more that are worthy of note along with some that are actually run by Esports teams or sites dedicated to Esports coverage. Using these is a great way of keeping  up to date on trending news, events, and broadcasts happening across the industry.  

Gosu Gamers

Billed as ”The World’s Premier Esports Portal”, Gosu Gamers is an up and coming site dedicated to Esports that has a mission to “deliver the highest quality eSports content and coverage”

Some well known top streamers are often live, and the platform of course covers tournaments, ranking, and general news on all the major games.

 

FaceIt

This popular platform has been running since 2014. It’s actually a competitive gaming platform where you can play with over 15 million gamers in leagues, tournaments and ladders.

Get an account and you’ll get matched with equally ranked and like-minded gamer’s – a great way to improve your skills.

Where there’s this sort of action there are always ways to watch – that could be by watching recorded videos or the best streams can get featured on the FaceIt homepage. You’ll be watching real live competitive gaming, streamed to your device.

 

Envy Gaming

One of the biggest names in the Esports industry, Envy Gaming are the owners of three top tier global esports teams –  franchise Team Envy, the Dallas Fuel team in the Overwatch League, and the Dallas Empire team in the Call of Duty League.

They’ve set up an EnvyUs subscription service for fans where membership benefits include some valuable rewards.

There are two levels of subscription, one free and one a paid membership. The free one is known as the Silver Plan and gives access to exclusive Envy Gaming content and custom updates from the Envy teams you follow.

For $29.95 a year you’ll get membership to The Gold Plan, obviously getting the same as Silver but with extras including invites to the members-only Discord, automatic entries in Team Envy giveaways, priority access to high demand virtual and real world Esports events, and exclusive Envy store discounts.

The Discord channel may turn out to be most popular with subscribers, delivering exclusive content, player/team/creator access, voice chat, giveaways and more!

 

Juked  

Juked’s website states their goal is to ”create a better way to discover, watch, and engage with the best events and content from across the global esports community”.

The platform is live but under development as of November 2020. With a wide range of game titles covered – the current target is to provide support for 25+ of them – Juked is likely to develop into a premier destination for Esports fans.

Some of the platform benefits include:

Notifications: set up your favorite games, teams, and players and you’ll automatically get notified about every match.

Esports Streams:  esports broadcasts (live streams and video on demand) are aggregated and embedded from Twitch and YouTube.

Tournament Information:  easily find tournament information like scores, standings, brackets, schedules, and more.

News and Content: you’ll get news and video content covering every esport, including breaking news and in depth info

There’s  a $4.99-$9.99 monthly subscription that gives access to exclusive badges, features, and original content like behind the scenes videos, interviews, and shows. You can invest in Juked at this early stage.

Evolve Youth Esports

Evolve Youth Esports is an organization based in Indianapolis in the USA. It’s ”dedicated to offering a fun and constructive alternative to traditional sports leagues for school-aged children”.

The aim is to build communities promoting ”healthy competition, creativity, and social engagement with other young people who share a love of gaming”

All good stuff! And you’d expect a subscription service from such an organisation will very much appeal to the younger gamer’s among us.  

This video below explains how it all works, and there are options of monthly and annual memberships plus an extra way to get a Fortnite online pass. 

Nerd Street Gamers 

Nerd Street Gamers is an amateur esports focused operation based in North America. They focus on building exceptional live and digital Esports event experiences. They’re one of the latest Esports operators to start up a subscription service.

Nerd Street+ is available at $20 per month, a price which includes gaming PC and/or console hours at all participating nationwide locations, unlimited free access to weekly tournaments, discounts on larger tournaments and camps, and a variety of exclusive subscriber benefits.

There’s also a digital-only subscription priced at $5 per month targeted at gamer’s who intend to enter Nerd Street’s digital tournaments and camps from home.

Taking up membership could result in some valuable savings, with average entry fees for Nerd Street weekly tournaments currently priced at $5, monthly tournaments at $25, and championships at $100.