Historic RoL Cup Success Boosts Gaming Gear Demand... Expecting Abko Benefits

The world's largest esports tournament, the '2023 League of Legends World Championship (Worlds),' is heating up South Korea with unprecedented popularity. As a result, expectations are rising for the benefits to Abko, the country's top gaming gear company and the market leader in PC bangs.

According to industry sources on the 24th, the esports industry is reigniting following the success of Worlds, and it is anticipated to have a significant ripple effect on closely related industries such as gaming gear. It is expected to serve as a turning point to revive the previously stagnant industry atmosphere.

On the 19th, the Korean team T1, featuring the world-renowned esports player Faker, won the Worlds finals held at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul with a 3-0 victory over the Chinese team Weibo Gaming. With this win, T1 achieved the historic records of their '4th championship' and 'most championships.'

This year’s Worlds took place over about a month from October 10 to November 19 in Seoul and Busan, with a total of 53 matches. All matches held in Seoul, including the preliminaries, were sold out, and the finals tickets sold out within 10 minutes. The passionate cheering led to the first-ever large-scale street cheering event for esports at Gwanghwamun Square.

The number of viewers also reached an all-time high. The cumulative viewership is estimated at 400 million, with 100 million concurrent viewers during the finals. This contrasts sharply with the U.S. Major League Baseball World Series TV viewership this year, which recorded a historic low of 9.79 million viewers.

This success of Worlds is welcome news for Abko. As the number one gaming gear company in Korea, Abko held 70-80% of the domestic PC bang keyboard market share before COVID-19. Abko’s fully waterproof keyboards have secured a dominant position due to their durability and price competitiveness, being resistant to damage from water or beverages. Given the nature of PC bangs, the industry believes that products like Abko’s, which offer excellent waterproofing and easy component replacement, naturally attract attention.

In particular, the K660 optical switch keyboard, a representative gaming keyboard product, is known to be used by KT Rolster player Kim Haram (Aiming) during tournaments such as Worlds, and is highly regarded for its performance. Player Kiin is also known to use Abko’s steady seller, the A660 mouse.

An Abko representative stated, "The esports market, which was stagnant due to COVID-19, is rapidly growing thanks to the success of international events like the Hangzhou Asian Games and Worlds, and we expect it to play a significant role in revitalizing the gaming gear industry."

Meanwhile, according to market research firm Statista, Korea’s esports market is projected to reach $274.4 million this year, ranking third in size after the U.S. ($871 million) and China ($445.2 million).