eSports
StarCraft has found a home in South Korea where many play it professionally or as a spectator sport. It is the most popular professionally played game due to its immense popularity in South Korea, where the best pro-gamers are seen as celebrities.
In Korea, Starcraft has leagues such as Ongamenet Starleague, MBC Starleague, and Proleague. Finals for these league attract tens of thousands of fans and are viewed on cable TV with great popularity.
StarCraft is the very first game to have been accepted into the World Cyber Games tournament and has a tournament at their events since inception. It also enjoys significant competitive popularity in the west as well.
What makes StarCraft gain its enormous popularity in South Korea? StarCraft was introduced in South Korea ten years ago by Blizzard and started to become popular since its launch. Well developed high speed internet distribution in South Korea allowed StarCraft, which players have a match over the internet, to become best selling PC game in South Korea. The popularity of StarCraft created players who compete professionally with others and led to establish StarCraft competition. The matches are broadcast like other sports games and the StarCraft players are professionally trained and sponsored like other sports players.