StarCraft 2 launched in September 2010 and has been bringing eSports to the world with a bang ever since. Last month, SC2 had over $60,000 in cash prize tournaments and as of its launch date has over $1.2 million in cash prizes, as noted on the SC2 tournaments page. This article explains how StarCraft 2 takes esports to the next level.

Since its release, SC2 has had commentators, many of whom have been commentating since the original StarCraft. Husky and HD the two most prominent have accumulated hundreds of thousands of subscribers on their YouTube channels dedicated to discussing SC2. Both channels when a video is published has more than 10,000 views in hours and more than 100,000 in days. Many more people can now be found commentating SC2 matches, there are many SC2 replay sites that make it incredibly easy for anyone to start their own YouTube channel. Many of these commenters have paid sponsors who pay them to add a logo or banner to the commented video. SC2 annotated replays are just one of the many things that make SC2 a world leader in eSports.

Matches televised and broadcast live. Recently, there have been websites that have dedicated streams to specific SC2 players like LiquidTLO or TheLittleOne who did a 24-hour SC2 marathon where the money raised would be donated to the Médecins Sans Frontières charity. This was a huge success for the professional SC2 player and grossed over $2,400 with a peak audience of 24,000 people. It is not only websites that broadcast these matches, but also television stations. Korea, for example, has several TV channels for SC2 matches.

StarCraft 2 is global. The game has its largest fan base in Korea; launch day was a national holiday. Korea has also made StarCraft an official national sport of the country. SC2 was huge in Korea since its release to the rest of the world, it’s a growing trend. Since its launch it has joined the World Cyber ​​​​Sports Cup, the largest eSport event in the world. There are many LAN tournaments around the world from America, Europe and Asia. The major leagues in the world are the NASL, the North American Star League, the ESL European Starcraft League, and the Korean GSL Global Sarcraft League. North Korea also has GomTV, which has a partnership with Blizzard and broadcasts StarCraft 2 matches live on television. As you can see, StraCraft 2 is still dominant in Korea, however, very few players travel to Korea to play professional StarCraft 2 because, unlike the original StarCraft 2, it is becoming more and more popular in the rest of the world instead of retire to Korea. For the first time ever, people living outside of Korea have the opportunity to earn a living by playing StarCraft 2.

With full-time salaries, cash prize tournaments and sponsorships larger than any game in history, StarCraft 2 is the king of esports.