Shanghai Aims to Be the World Gaming Capital With $898 Million Esports Arena
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- Shanghai International New Cultural and Creative E-sports Centre is set to be the world's biggest esports facility.
- Construction is underway and the facility will launch in 2024 to host esports events.
- Shanghai is already established as an esports hub with a history of hosting some of the biggest events including a League of Legends World Championship.
Shanghai aims to be the leader of competitive esports with a new esports center that is being developed for an unbelievable 5.8 billion yuan ($898.2 million). The facility will span across 500,000 square meters and it will host esports teams, organizations, and gaming companies. The facility will have a hotel attached for accommodation and have the capacity to host multiple events at once.
Shanghai International New Cultural and Creative E-sports Centre Overview
The new Shanghai International New Cultural and Creative E-sports Centre seeks to be the home local and international esports events. Shanghai is no stranger to esports with the city hosting the League of Legends World Championship, which is one the grandest esports event to take place each year.
China is currently the largest esports market in the world according to a report by Newzoo and the global esports market has generated around $1.1 billion in 2020 alone. With over 70% of China’s 720 million-strong gaming community invested in esports titles, the Chinese market has huge potential for the industry.
The new facility is being built by SuperGen, which is the parent company of esports team Edward Gaming. The facility will be in construction for over three years and will be available for access in 2024. It is the world’s costliest esports arena. The Chinese esports industry was estimated to reach 19.68 billion USD in 2020 which it achieved despite the global pandemic. The growth of the Chinese esports scene is driven by mobile gaming and the country also has its roots in competitive PC esports in titles like League of Legends, PUBG, and Overwatch.
The new facility dwarves the NRG Gaming Castle which was launched in November. The $10 million project was visualized by NRG’s executive producer Grady Raines with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory being the creative driver behind the project. The new Shanghai esports facility beats out every other esports arena or gaming facility by a large margin in terms of scale.
With Shanghai already established as a global esports hub, we can expect some of the biggest esports events to be hosted at the Shanghai International New Cultural and Creative E-sports Centre. We have had esports events hosted at iconic sporting stadiums and even the Royal Opera House but this is one of the first esports-only venues to boast of such scale and facilities that are dedicated to the gaming and esports community only.
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