Spectators react during the Esports 2024 King Pro League (KPL) final event in Beijing, China. Hotels catering to gamers mushroomed during Covid, as ubiquitous Internet cafes were closed due to restrictions against crowds. — Bloomberg
Zhu Hao, an office worker in his early 20s, recently checked into a hotel in China’s southern city of Shenzhen for a weekend escape with a couple of buddies. Their plan: Play video games until early morning, order in and maybe take a break with a quick massage.
"It’s boring to play by myself,” said Zhu, who loves gaming getaways so much they’ve become a near weekly routine. "And here at the hotel, my parents can’t nag me or interrupt my gaming.”
The Jinnang E-Sports Pan-Entertainment Hotel, where Zhu and his friends stayed, is one of hundreds across the city catering to diehard gamers intent on playing titles such as League of Legends or PUBG Battlegrounds against other groups online. It offers dorm-like rooms with as many as five bunkbeds, and luxe gaming setups with huge monitors and comfortable padded chairs. To keep gamers fueled, its pantry is stocked with a variety of instant noodles and other snacks.
Such specialised lodging is sprouting up across Asia, from Hong Kong to Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, amid a craze that’s captivated casual gamers and given rise to professional leagues offering million-dollar prize pools. Nowhere is demand bigger than China, where there are more than 21,000 such hotels, according to research firm Niko Partners, which focuses on the video gaming market.
The popularity of the getaways also offers a glimpse of a cultural shift underway in China, where younger people often known as the lie-flat generation are embracing less-demanding lifestyles and focusing on leisure activities with friends.
"This new generation of Chinese youth don’t yet know the importance of saving money,” said Zhang Zijun, who manages a nearby rival hotel above a pizza joint, part of the Yueta chain focusing on esports. "They don’t really care much about prices as long as it’s reasonable. They care about how big the bed is, whether it’s a comfortable environment for playing games with friends.”
Zhang, in his 30s, bespectacled and sporting a black button-up shirt with rolled-up sleeves, said the hotel’s target customers are like him: male office workers in their early 20s and 30s who have a "heart for games.” The 40-room hotel offers hundreds of titles for guests to choose from and 24-hour tech support. The average occupancy rate runs at 92%, with weekends usually fully booked, leaving his crew of cleaning ladies little time to rest, he said. Though most customers are young men, one of the rooms features pink walls, chairs and LED lighting to appeal to women.
The hotel’s public spaces and hallways are often empty, with guests staying in their rooms to play video games until the early hours of the morning. Many extend their one-night stays. In October, a group of friends checked in for one night and ultimately stayed for eight.
"They kept playing games in the room and ordering piles of food,” Zhang said. "Our cleaning lady came out with two gigantic bags of garbage.”
Unlike the US or Europe where gamers typically play online at home, esports are more of an in-person social activity in China and elsewhere in Asia, with friends congregating in public venues.
Hotels catering to gamers mushroomed during Covid, as ubiquitous Internet cafes were closed due to restrictions against crowds. Post-pandemic, the gaming cafes have struggled to compete – four friends bunking together for as little as US$14 (RM62) per person a night is far cheaper than paying hourly rates at cafes.
"It’s more affordable to pool resources and hang out with friends than to invest in your own gaming device,” said Alexander Champlin, esports senior analyst at Niko Partners. "If you’re all in a hotel room playing together, it’s easier to talk strategy.”
Some facilities, like the E-Blue Esports Hotel in Zhongshan, about a 90-minute drive from Shenzhen, are positively space-age. The lobby and hallways glow with blue LED lighting while rooms, complete with capsule bunks and banks of computer screens, look like the set of a sci-fi movie. A room for three nights, shared by four people, can cost up to US$200 (RM890) in total. And while they are fully booked on weekends, manager Li Wei is wary of almost a dozen rival hotels within a 2-mile radius. A competing esports chain hotel recently went out of business due to the price competition - and was shortly taken over by a new owner, said Li.
"Competition is fierce,” he said.
China closely regulates the gaming industry to combat addiction, including restrictions on the amount of time minors can spend playing online games. But the government has also identified esports as an engine for economic growth. In a sign of official approval, President Xi Jinping attended the opening of last year’s 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, where competitive video games were eligible for medals for the first time.
The August release of Black Myth: Wukong, a blockbuster title that follows the adventures of a monkey warrior, gave the industry another big boost. The Chinese-made game increased sales of gaming consoles and hardware, and also benefited esports hotels, according to Niko Partners’ Champlin and hoteliers.
China is home to about 490 million esports gamers, generating revenue that's grown 4% so far this year from almost US$3.7bil (RM16.47bil) in 2023, according to the Electronic Sports Committee of China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association.
The Chinese esports lodging market alone generated about US$2.7bil (RM12bil) in revenue last year, according to a report by Ctrip.com, the country’s largest online travel agency.
Shenzhen, better known as a manufacturing hub for consumer goods and electronics, is an esports epicenter with more than 350 hotels catering to gamers. The city offers subsidies to encourage the competitive gaming industry, and has at least eight esports clubs that field teams. Investors big and small are jumping in. Conglomerate Fosun International, which owns the English Premier League soccer club Wolverhampton Wanderers and the related Wolves Esports Club in China, is planning to open its own gaming hotel.
"Industries wanting to target young audiences are paying close attention to the esports sector,” said Teng Feifei, vice president of the Fosun Sports Group unit. "One of the fastest-growing developments is the integration of esports with hotels and cultural tourism.”
Such integration is apparent in Malaysia, too. SEM9, an organisation that has professional teams competing in tournaments such as League of Legends and PUBG Mobile, has also expanded into hospitality. SEM9 chief executive officer Kevin Wong bought a struggling 3-star hotel near the airport in the busy city of Johor Bahru in 2022 and remodeled 44 rooms on two floors to cater to video-game enthusiasts. Occupancy doubled to more than 40% as soon as the gaming rooms were marketed, Wong said.
Now he’s speaking to other hotel owners in the country to help them convert rooms to appeal to gamers.
"There’s so much opportunity for esports hotels in Southeast Asia,” said Wong. "The audience is here, and the field is wide open.” – Bloomberg
