While this is primarily a movement fueled by younger players – nearly three-quarters of the world's athletes are between 16 and 34 years old – it will sooner or later include older people as well. After all, today’s gamers will soon be older, too. Meanwhile, older people already reap the benefits of advances in gamification and video games in rehabilitation or healthcare settings. The impact in these areas is likely to grow in the coming years, provided that the companies involved in the research and development consider the needs of all players/users.
The German Sport University Cologne conducted and published the eSport study 2019. It suggests that sport and eSports are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Of the nearly 1,200 eAthletes who participated in the study, roughly 84 percent are also active in traditional sports to complement their online performance. Nevertheless, the study also revealed that only half of the respondents spend two and a half hours each week on physical activity as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Every fourth participant is actually overweight. That’s why eAthletes are part of an at-risk group for poor health since they spend a lot of time sitting – an average of nearly 25 hours per week.
Having said that, it is only a matter of time before there are training concepts that support both amateur athletes in achieving better results on the console or computer and improve basic health. After all, a healthy eAthlete is simply a better eAthlete. And who knows? Maybe eSports might soon become an Olympic sport after all or assume a similar position in the DOSB universe as the Paralympic Games, which have their own structures for competition. Speaking of Paralympics: For Tokyo2020 there will even be a separate game for the games.
Esports hasn’t quite carved its niche yet in Germany’s sports landscape. However, there are obvious synergies between real and digital sports, especially because it affords people with disabilities unique opportunities for participation and is a way to attract younger people to join clubs, particularly in light of aging and declining memberships in traditional sports clubs and associations. This would also greatly benefit society.
Incidentally, the previous REHACARE trade fair has shown how eSports and traditional sports can co-exist. Last year, visitors were able to compete against professional players of FC Schalke 04 in a friendly game of Pro Evolution Soccer and FIFA and try out new kinds of sports in Hall 7a.