There are billions of gamers worldwide today and there are many ways for them to try and monetize their playing time to try and turn their passion into a lucrative career.

For some, they're making hundreds of thousands of dollars by playing games, even millions. Soon, it's expected that video gamers will be earning more than professional athletes.

One 19 year old amateur gamer recently won $250,000 alone from playing in a Fortnite tournament.

As the popularity of esports continues to rise, the landscape of sports has been evolving. Viewership for traditional sports events has reportedly been on the decline but esports popularity keeps growing. Could it soon carve out its own place at the Olympics?

$ Getting Started $

Becoming a professional gamer today isn't cheap, Bloomberg previously estimated that the real cost of trying to become a professional gamer could be somewhere around $17,000. Though, other estimates place that entry cost a great deal lower.

The chances of becoming a well-paid gamer is also quite challenging, just because you go out and purchase the equipment or spend some time learning how to play the game doesn't mean you're automatically going to see success.

One of the most popular games right now is Fortnite; what was essentially founded by a college kid has now turned into a multi-billion dollar game. There are tens of millions of Fortnite players worldwide and at any one time there could be millions playing. It's only a few years old and already it has been placed on-par with the likes of Star Wars and Minecraft.

Fortnite has an upcoming Winter Royale Online Tournament, with a prize pool reportedly worth more than $1 million.

As we have seen the internet come in to change and help evolve many industries, some say that now they are waiting for the same to happen within the sports arena.

Might traditional sports continue to decline in viewership and popularity, with esports rapidly growing in the years to come?

Goldman Sachs has previously suggested that the esports audience might reach a size similar to the NFL audience by 2022; roughly 300 million viewers.

The more that esports has continued to grow in popularity it seems that there are increasing calls for more regulation involving this industry too. Various media reports have suggested that it's currently akin to the “wild west” because of the lack of central coercion that's involved in this space. Hopefully that infringement won't come in to eventually dampen the success of the industry and the freedom of those individuals who work in the esports market.

By 2022 it's estimated that esports revenue will surpass 3 billion USD.

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