Los Angeles, Shanghai and Paris were ranked as the top three cities in a global esports city evaluation report recently published by a research team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. Los Angeles topped the rankings with 100 points while Shanghai came in second with 94.9 points.
15 cities were dedicated to becoming the global esports capital and were evaluated for 20 indexes in five categories: industrial ecology, infrastructure, competitions, clubs and social influence.
Los Angeles was ranked number 1 in the world, followed by Shanghai, Paris, Beijing and Berlin. Atlanta, Seoul, Seattle, Hangzhou, Chengdu and Stockholm followed, from sixth to 11th place. Haikou, Wuhan, Katowice in Poland and Xi’an were ranked from 12th to 15th place.
Although Seoul, South Korea, is commonly regarded as the global capital of esports, it was ranked seventh due to its lack of major IT companies that contribute to the long-term growth of the industry in the country.
Statistics from the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association show that last year, the market size of esports in China reached more than 136 billion yuan (US$20.4 billion), an increase by 44.2 percent from 2019.
Shanghai has witnessed a rapid growth in esports. The city has more than 250 esports firms and clubs, accounting for 80 percent of the country. Every year, more than 41 percent of esports games take place in Shanghai and well-known teams like IG, FPX and EDG are all based here.
Shanghai now has 12 vocational schools and universities with esports-related majors and 27 social institutes that cultivate esports professionals. The esports and management major at Shanghai Publishing and Printing College cultivates professionals for planning esports programs, live streaming games and running esports new media platforms.
