[ad_1]
Promoted article (contains affiliate links)
TikTok, a leading short-form video platform, is the latest and greatest social media app to take off in a big way. Millions of younger people have fallen in love with the app, best known for viral dancing and lip-syncing videos.
Content creators on the app need to use built-in video editing features and dedicated tools to hook viewers within just a few seconds.
Unsurprisingly, the biggest recent evolution of TikTok came when users were allowed to post three-minute videos. TikTok’s success is premised on how easy it is to view short-form video content, and the app formerly had a strict 60-second video length limit. Most content still fits into the 60-second limit, but the three-minute extended time aims to keep viewers engaged, who can now more easily interact with the content on their For You Page.
With the lengthier three-minute video limit, TikTok content creators can arguably make more use of visual and sound effects to enhance and differentiate their videos. A glitch art generator is one video edit anyone can use to easily make video transitions much more eye-catching. Some other free video edit tools you can use to make TikTok videos are available from OpenShot, VideoSoftDev, and Lumen5.
How TikTok is affecting the Gaming Industry
Esports has found a new fanbase on TikTok, with gaming content proving to be popular among its users. While gaming content on TikTok is made up mostly of clips from games, highlights, and news videos, TikTok’s new CEO, Kevin Mayer, has stated that one of his goals is to expand the reach of gaming and esports on the platform. Here are some examples of how TikTok is changing the gaming industry:
New Championships
The app’s developer, ByteDance, has been making forays into gaming with the platform, mostly in China with a new gaming division that makes its own games, and into esports – the world of allstar esports teams and competitive, organised video gaming.
In Spring last year, it held the first-ever TikTok Cup in partnership with the Collegiate StarLeague (CSL), an online collegiate esports tournament with a considerable $60,000 prize pool. Collegiate players had the opportunity to compete to earn their share of the prize money to support their education expenses.
In addition to the $60,000 prize pool, any of the TikTok Cup participants could win gear and additional cash prizes by uploading funny and creative videos with the #TikTokCupContest hashtag. TikTok then gave its users the spotlight by featuring the best of these tagged videos on the TikTok Cup broadcast and CSL’s official TikTok page.
New Experience During the Events
TikTok has embraced esports. Going further back, in October 2020, TikTok announced a partnership with FIFA 21-based esports team Tundra – FIFA content apparently has more than 3.3 billion views on the platform. And since then, we’ve seen major video game producers and developers like Riot Games and ESL incorporate TikTok into their activities.
Increased interest in esports
Similarly, esports betting operators can also make use of TikTok; there really isn’t any good reason not to create a TikTok marketing strategy at this point (we have one here at Esports News UK – it’s called lack of time and resources)!
Since TikTok content is so short-form, getting onto the platform can be done as easily as by repurposing and recycling existing video content from YouTube. Moving forward, short-form highlights from major tournaments and useful esports tutorials for various games can also drum up interest in esports.
However, the majority of the esports community tend to use Twitter to discuss what’s happening in the space – TikTok seems to have a more casual userbase.
A New Way To Communicate With the Audience
Esports and gaming organisations have experimented with TikTok and invested creative and marketing resources into it. During the World Championships finals for the popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, League of Legends, back in 2019, Riot Games partnered with TikTok to launch its original music track, ‘True Damage,’ with a hashtag challenge where users could upload lip-synced videos with the track.
Moving forward, TikTok’s developer ByteDance has a video game development unit, Nuverse, which has acquired several gaming studios and exclusive distribution rights. Most notably, earlier this year it agreed to acquire Shanghai-based Moonton Technology, the developer behind another MOBA, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
A New Wave of Influencers
It’s not just big companies and esports teams that are feeling the impact of TikTok; individual players and esports influencers have been hitting it big. At the time of writing, Fortnite World Cup champion Bugha and Courage have 5.7 million and 2.3 million TikTok followers, respectively.
While some influencers have hesitated to shift to TikTok, it’s clear there are benefits to be found.
Former UK League of Legends scene player Chibs, who has played with MNM Gaming and Fnatic Rising, moved across to TikTok in recent years where he now has 1.2m followers.
Some more of the most popular gaming and esports accounts on TikTok include:
- Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins – 7.4m followers
- Brian ‘FaZe Rug’ Awadis – 8.4m followers
- Pokimane – 6.1m followers
- Frazier ‘Kay’ Kay – 2.5m followers
There are also brands getting involved like HyperX, Excel Esports, Fnatic and more.
TalentX Entertainment, a social media monetization and talent development company, partnered with ReKTGlobal earlier this year to create TalentX Gaming, led by CEO and former YouTube influencer Jason Wilhelm.
Influencers on TikTok can also partner with gaming companies to advertise the games they play and include ads when post videos.
Wilhelm said he hopes TalentX Gaming can help TikTok influencers create more gaming content to allow them to expand onto other platforms where they can stream and monetise their content.
Regardless, TikTok is relatively new compared to video giant platforms like YouTube and Twitch and social media sites like Instagram and Twitter, which esports influencers can turn to for maximum reach. Those platforms have also been inspired by TikTok, with YouTube launching Shorts.
Conclusion
For esports influencers not yet on TikTok, the one clear trend to follow is a universal cross-platform growth. Even the smallest audience penetration numbers from the least-active esports accounts on TikTok are in the ballpark of hundreds of thousands. When the app and its developer are actively supporting expansions into gaming and esports, growth can be presumed to be nearly inevitable.
Promoted article (contains affiliate links)
[ad_2]
esports-news.co.uk