In October 1958, the first video game was made. 60 years later, video/computer gaming has become known as esports, and now has a global audience of 385 million viewers.

This growth has now reached Coppell High School, where the esports club has been created.

This growth has been taking place slowly but surely, since 1972, when the first video game competition was held at Stanford University for the popular game Spacewar.

The definition of an e-sport is a multiplayer video game played competitively for spectators, typically by professional gamers.

Several esports players are Youtubers, such as PewDiePie and CaptainSparklez.

While in the past, gaming has been considered ‘lazy’, opinions have changed now, with several sports companies, such as ESPN, recognizing it as an official sport, and is being seriously considered for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

The question is, what has changed in the past few decades?

“In terms of watching it, it’s easier to pick up nowadays,” CHS senior esports club member Sage Border said.” You can just watch it and it’s not too difficult to understand, and against regular sports, it’s usually more interesting.”[It’s been] picked up and gone further than people thought it would.”

This miraculous growth started in the Seoul, South Korea, and has spread to many countries, including the United States, which is home to the second largest Korean diaspora community, following China.

This newfound appreciation of eSports means nothing but excitement for many Coppell gamers.

“The amount of dedication, the amount of skill that a lot of people have and put into eSports, they deserve to be recognized as real athletes,” CHS junior and esports club president Marcus Manushi said.

With technology continuously growing at a rapid pace, the growth of eSports is far from over.