E-sports Gaining Popularity in South Korea

delirium of disorder writes "According to the JoongAng Daily, a Korean English language newspaper, e-sports are a large and growing pastime in South Korea. The market for organized gaming competitions in South Korea was 40 billion last year and is growing at 29 percent a year. Tens of thousands of people go to watch tournaments and Korea even has three 24-hour television channels devoted exclusively to computer gaming." From the article: "According to the Korea Game Development Institute, the average budget for a pro gaming team in Korea is about 1.5 billion won, which includes practice sites, living quarters and transportation. The income of pro gamers depends on the individual. The highest earners can receive about 200 million won a year in salary and prize money plus endorsements and other additional fees from television appearances."

Comments

Pretty good

[Southpaw018]

200M won is about 207k USD. According to this article, the cost of living in Seoul is around 90% higher than the average cost of living in the US. So, what these guys are making is tantamount to getting paid $108k or so in the US. That's a pretty damn good chunk of change for playing video games!