In addition to esports, I think there's just been a growth of more niche non-traditional pastimes due to technology allowing people with those interests to connect.
An example I'm most familiar with is skateboarding. It's something I've followed since about 2000, and it's amazing how much it has grown in popularity over the last 10, much less 20 years. It's going to be in the Olympics in 2020!
I think a large part of this growth is explained by how technology has enabled distribution. In the 90's, if you wanted to watch a skate video or see the state of the art of what pros were doing, you either saw the few photos which made it into a monthly magazine, or hoped the nearest skate shop got the latest videos (and by the way, the nearest skate shop might be hours away if you don't live near a major city, esp. outside the US).
Nowadays, you follow your favorite pros on Instagram or Snapchat and you can literally see what they did that day. "Team" videos are largely a thing of the past, as a single rider can finish filming whenever he feels like it, and distribute his footage via iTunes for $3.99. You can imagine something like this would be economically infeasible in the days of VHS/DVD.
Going back, I suspect my friends and I in the rural midwest would have lost interest if we hadn't been able to download hundreds of videos off Napster/Kazaa in the early 00's :)
An example I'm most familiar with is skateboarding. It's something I've followed since about 2000, and it's amazing how much it has grown in popularity over the last 10, much less 20 years. It's going to be in the Olympics in 2020!
I think a large part of this growth is explained by how technology has enabled distribution. In the 90's, if you wanted to watch a skate video or see the state of the art of what pros were doing, you either saw the few photos which made it into a monthly magazine, or hoped the nearest skate shop got the latest videos (and by the way, the nearest skate shop might be hours away if you don't live near a major city, esp. outside the US).
Nowadays, you follow your favorite pros on Instagram or Snapchat and you can literally see what they did that day. "Team" videos are largely a thing of the past, as a single rider can finish filming whenever he feels like it, and distribute his footage via iTunes for $3.99. You can imagine something like this would be economically infeasible in the days of VHS/DVD.
Going back, I suspect my friends and I in the rural midwest would have lost interest if we hadn't been able to download hundreds of videos off Napster/Kazaa in the early 00's :)