Zwift is a peripheral-based bicycling game released in 2015 in which players control an on-screen cyclist using a real-life stationary bike. Pedaling harder makes your digital avatar bike faster on a predetermined path, meaning players are not required to physically turn around curves, but simply pedal to power their player character. As the game grows in popularity, so does its viability as an esport. Since Zwift doesn't resemble any of today's most popular competitive video games, considering Zwift races as esports may even necessitate reconsidering what defines esports as a medium.
Consider EVOQ.BIKE Powered By Enshored, which is thought by some to be the premier Zwift esports team. Whereas in most esports, top teams are generally made up of young players who were already spending exorbitant amounts of hours playing their competitive game of choice prior to their professional careers, the backgrounds of members of EVOQ.BIKE p/b Enshored and many other competitors in Zwift esports are in traditional sports.
This is, simply put, because the skills required to succeed in Zwift are directly transferable from old-fashioned, non-virtual bicycling. This makes Zwift esports unlike any of its competitors. Its closest analogues are in NBA 2K and other competitive sports games, which require the similar, if not the same strategies as their real-world counterparts. But unlike in Zwift, the mechanical skills used to control a 2K team differ greatly from how real-life NBA players physically play.
Many top competitors in Zwift, in fact, also compete in the UCI World Tour, which is considered a top level bicycling competition. Zwift now offers those competitors the capability to train at home, where, for example, Adam Zimmerman, a member of EVOQ.BIKE p/b Enshored and the 2018 USA National Zwift champion, has to take care of a new-born baby. Also unlike virtually all other esports, this means that competitive Zwift can theoretically attract an existing audience of fans of real-world bicycling events who want to see their favorite athletes compete digitally. It even includes on-screen stats like wattage output and heart rate that would be unfeasible to track during traditional bicycle races.
Zwift esports are growing, as is the esports industry as a whole. While Zwift isn't a threat to viewership of, say, League of Legends, it does present a more expansive paradigm than what most people think esports can be.
Source: Esports Insider