Mentioned in this article
- The Greater Raleigh area reports $1.45M USD in direct economic impact resulting from August’s Rainbow Six Siege Raleigh Major.
- Ubisoft’s event pulled in more than 2,600 visitors daily to the Raleigh Convention Center during three sold-out days of competition.
- Raleigh also saw 1,000+ video game industry job inquiries, with studios such as Epic Games and Ubisoft in the area.
The Greater Raleigh area in North Carolina saw $1.45M in direct economic impact from August’s Rainbow Six Siege Raleigh Major event, according to media and esports agency, Big Block.
The Raleigh Convention Center saw more than 2,600 attendees daily during the three sold-out days of the ESL-operated Ubisoft event, with more than 70% of visitors coming from out-of-state or internationally. Global Siege esports sponsors HyperX, Acer Predator, and PayPal were joined by local event sponsors Pepsi, VisitRaleigh, and internet service provider Celito.net, and the live stream of the event drew more than 16M total views and more than 6M hours watched.
Additionally, the report cites more than 1,000 inquiries for local video game industry jobs during the weekend. The Raleigh-Durham area has a large number of game development studios, including Epic Games, Insomniac Games, Ubisoft/Red Storm Entertainment, and Funcom.
“Esports has passionate fans that will come from around the globe to drive tourism economic impact,” said Loren Gold, EVP of the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau, “while comparable sized traditional sporting events and concerts typically are regional draws with a higher percentage of local attendance.”
The Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau (Visit Raleigh) and the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance (GRSA) collectively hired Big Block to help draw esports events to the area. In addition to consulting the groups throughout the process of the Raleigh Major event, Big Block also held an esports summit event to educate local businesses about the industry and opportunities.
The three organizations have since formed the Greater Raleigh Esports Local Organizing Committee (GRELOC), with plans to create a sustainable esports industry in the area and expand the number of annual events to five or more within three-to-five years.
“Esports is not something that can be homegrown overnight,” said Big Block Managing Director Esports Ed Tomasi, in a release. “By leveraging our team’s 20+ years of collective relationships, trust, and experience in global esports production and brand management, Greater Raleigh has quickly been elevated on the global stage for having the facilities and ecosystem for hosting world-class esports events.”
