The UK’s first eSports arena has opened up in Fulham, West London inside a converted multiplex cinema.
Plans for the arena were revealed back in February. Tournaments will be held in the complex over seven months, with hundreds of spectators coming to watch gamers do what they do best, reports Sky News.
The bods behind the arena reckon the UK gaming scene is on the verge of taking off, and with five million individuals eGaming in the country they may be speaking the truth.
Neville Upton from Gfinity, commented: “The growth is phenomenal. The last big event we did got 8.7 million people watching just over a weekend.”
Other countries that have already jumped on the eSports wagon (such as South Korea) pack stadiums with around 40,000 spectators, and the top players have earned celebrity status.
Evidence of how popular this industry can be is live streaming platform, Twitch. 45 million people accessed the site last year to watch live gaming events. This year, however, it has grown to a hundred million.
Gfinity recently spoke to PCR about how it wants to build a second and even bigger eSports arena in the UK.