The Role of Gaming and Esports in Travel’s Future

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Esports tourism is on a rapid rise, and it’s poised to revolutionize the travel business. The market for esports is massive, estimated to reach 773 million users in 2025, according to data from Statista Market Insights. In addition, nearly 318 million people worldwide are considered “dedicated fans” of esports, a figure that increased more than 20% since 2022, according to a separate analysis of esports “viewers” from Statista, cited by DemandSage.

The explosive popularity of esports is not only an interesting story of rapid growth in and of itself. It represents a completely new category of sporting event and is significantly impacting global tourism patterns.

SkiftX spoke with Saud Alwahhabi, gaming and esports marketing manager, Qiddiya Investment Company, about the rise of gaming and esports tourism, what it means for the evolution of travel, and how gaming and esports are fundamental to Qiddiya City’s vision of creating the world’s first city built on play.

Qiddiya City is building an entire gaming and esports district, covering 183,100 square meters of arenas, facilities, and a variety of innovative technologies and platforms to facilitate gaming for everyone, not only professional esports players and avid fans, but also the uninitiated: the curious, the dabblers, and those who are just looking for a fun day out. As a future host of sporting events of all kinds, including esports, Qiddiya City is also a strategic enabler of Vision 2030, using esports and gaming tourism as levers to diversify the economy, attract international audiences, and connect Saudi culture to global youth movements.

With sports tourism in general, people travel to attend football matches, tournaments, and so on. Esports is no different in the sense that fans want to be physically connected with their favorite players in person. At the same time, esports is unique because there’s already a social aspect incorporated with the live streaming nature of online gaming, where fans are more directly interacting with their favorite players than they would be with traditional sports athletes.

“In that way, being physically with [esports professionals] in the same arena or the same venue has a different feeling,” said Alwahhabi. “In addition, many esports tournaments host meet and greets, so it’s easier for fans to meet their idols. All of these factors are driving the excitement behind esports tournaments and tourism.”

This passionate fanbase is driving increasing interest in traveling to watch and participate in person. According to a survey from Skift and Qiddiya City, 70% of Gen Z and Millennial travelers globally said that they would be interested in planning a trip around a gaming and esports event, either to play in a tournament or watch one. In addition, the percentage of younger travelers who have actually planned trips around gaming and esports for the next two years has risen about five percentage points, from roughly 24% to 29%, compared to the previous two years.

Esports tourism has a unique ability to build communities that transcend physical and cultural boundaries. Fans aren’t just sharing a passion for the game — they’re forming connections with people from different countries and backgrounds, creating bonds that exist on a whole new level. This sense of global belonging is fueling travel, tourism, and cultural exchange, making esports not only a competitive sport but also a catalyst for unity across borders.

As a beacon of this growing tourism sector, the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2025 recently took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July 7 to August 24. The 2024 inaugural event welcomed 2.6 million visitors, and the latest edition outpaced this, exceeding 3 million, according to the Saudi Press Agency. EWC 2025 featured 2,000 elite players and 200 Clubs from more than 100 countries, competing in 25 tournaments across 24 games for a record-breaking $70+ million prize pool.

The explosive growth of events and tournaments is legitimizing gaming and esports tourism. Professional esports players are competing for millions of dollars, and there has been a huge increase in people attending festivals outside of the competitions themselves. It’s a huge industry and a phenomenon that’s ascending beyond hardcore fans and opening new avenues to cross-cultural and cross-generational understanding.

In particular, gaming and esports culture is reflective of the blurred lines between the online and offline world, which is having an unprecedented influence on tourism with a new demographic. And its growth is reshaping the perspective of what gaming and esports culture really is. Fans are not only tuning in online; they’re traveling across borders to be part of the live experience. One-third of global travelers said they would travel more than 6 hours to participate in an esports event, according to Skift and Qiddiya City data, and 58% of those who had traveled for such an event did so internationally.

“People have a negative stereotype of gamers as people who spend a lot of time online in their basements not doing anything,” said Alwahhabi. “But that’s not reality. This is a real community, and it’s all about coming together.”

EWC 2025 has grown significantly over previous years. For example, in 2024, 180,000 people bought tickets to the tournaments, but 2.5 million people visited for the festival activities. So it’s much bigger than just the competition itself. According to the Saudi Press Agency, the 2025 edition raised the bar even further. It was the most-watched in the tournament’s history, with more than 750 million viewers tuning in, and 350 million hours watched. Multiple “hundreds of thousands” attended the tournaments in person, and the event overall welcomed 3 million visitors to Riyadh.

One of the foundational goals of Qiddiya City is to help people move past the idea that play is frivolous. Play is all around us, of course, but it’s much easier to link play with video games. So it’s not difficult to explain the association between Qiddiya’s “Play Life” philosophy when it comes to gaming and esports.

“Not everyone is an esports athlete or esports enthusiast, but I believe everyone is a gamer,” said Alwahhabi. “We all play games on our phones, computers, consoles, or whatever. And the good thing about Qiddiya City’s gaming and esports district is that it’s not only about hosting competitions and events. We’ll have areas where you go and you experience video games in a way never seen before.”

The city will introduce a new genre of gameplay for everyone from beginners to experts to people just passing through.

“If someone is visiting to go to a theme park or a concert, they will pass by the gaming and esports district, and they’re going to want to try it,” Alwahhabi added. “It’s not like the esports tournaments where you need to sit and watch and need to know the mechanics of the game.”

From a technological standpoint, the viewing experience for esports tournaments will be unlike anything the world has seen.

Alwahhabi gave an analogy about football to describe the difference: “If you stay at home and watch a football match, you have some privileges that the people in the arena or stadium don’t have because you have replays, you have commentators, you have your own food, and comfortable seating. So you are getting something, and of course, those in the stadium will get very different privileges, like the atmosphere of people cheering and the excitement of being physically there.”

In esports, there’s a similar experience. Fans can watch Twitch or YouTube and chat with the players and interact with each other, but that hasn’t been able to translate to the live experience yet. However, it’s easy to see the possibility of incorporating that connectivity live so that the benefits of watching a football match at home can’t be replicated in a stadium.

In other words, in Qiddiya City’s gaming and esports district, fans won’t have those trade-offs, so esports tourism will become even more valuable.

Saudi Arabia is not just a participant in the esports economy but a central player shaping its future.

For example, the fact that His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the EWC puts the significance of this sector on display. “We have so many announcements for so many huge projects, and he isn’t out there in front of every one,” said Alwahhabi. “That’s been a huge thing for the older generation to see in the news.”

In addition, enthusiasm for esports across the country has become a source of national pride. The Saudi Team Falcons secured its second straight Esports World Cup title after topping the overall standings with 4,900 points, outperforming other elite international clubs, with the Netherlands’ Team Liquid finishing second with 4,200 points, followed by France’s Team Vitality in third with 3,950 points. According to the Saudi Press Agency, “the Falcons have reinforced their status as one of the world’s leading esports organizations, continuing to raise the Kingdom’s flag at the highest international stages.”

Beyond the EWC, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has also announced the first-ever Olympic Esports Games, slated to take place in Saudi Arabia in 2027, which will continue playing a crucial role in the development of esports tourism.

In addition to revolutionizing the experience of live gaming and hosting events and tournaments the Qiddiya Gaming & Esports District is not only for consumers, but also for businesses, working to attract gaming companies as well as flagship stores. This positions Qiddiya City as a premier destination for esports tourism. Indeed, more than 30 leading video game companies will make Qiddiya City’s gaming & esports district the site of their regional headquarters.

“We truly expect Qiddiya City to be established as the esports capital of the world,” said Alwahhabi.

To learn more about Qiddiya City’s vision for esports and gaming, visit https://qiddiya.com/qiddiya-city/gaming/.

For extensive research and deeper insights into the power of play and its impact on the future of global tourism, download the report from Skift and Qiddiya City.

This content was created collaboratively by Qiddiya City and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.