It’s all about entertainment.

Whatever entertains people will become a popular pastime. Think about all those hours you whiled away playing solitaire and minesweeper on Windows 98. Think about the hours you while away in front of the most mind-numbing and underwhelming Netflix series simply because you get hooked.

With sport, though, you’re always guaranteed suspense and action. Perhaps you won’t get a classic every time, you might have to sit through some dud games in order to find one that genuinely moves you, but you’ll very often have a fun time.

So if you think that the esports craze will die down because people will get bored of watching other people playing video games, then you’ll probably be surprised over the next few years. And you’ve probably misunderstood sport, too. Because it’s built upon a similar principle.

Televised sport is, at heart, a case thousands of people sitting in front of their screens watching other people perform what is usually thought of as a leisure activity.

But it is, quite clearly, more than that. You watch other, more talented people play a game of skill, showcase their talents and, hopefully, entertain. And then it becomes an opinion generator. After the event comes the inquest, the inevitable water-cooler conversations between colleagues or debates down the pub with your mates.

And that’s the niche that esports is working in. As games get more advanced, as consoles become more and more capable of producing games that involve a multitude of different ways in which you can play, techniques and styles become more prevalent.

Money has been pumped into the sector – over $700m in 2015 according to a description of a forum at this year’s Soccerex convention – it’s becoming more and more lucrative for advertisers and marketers. Its popularity is beginning to show: sport website Bleacher Report reaped over 368k views on a Facebook Live video where former Tottenham Hotspur footballer Rohan Ricketts sat down with Bleacher journalists to play a few games of the new FIFA 17 game.

Admittedly, that figure is perhaps somewhat inflated by the fact that they’re playing the new FIFA game. We know that EA Sports’ FIFA series is incredibly popular, and given that it has just been released this week, the interest is perhaps higher than it usually would have been.

Still, the number of viewers is almost laughably high for what is, essentially, a couple of guys sitting around playing video games – but by now we should know better than to think of it in those terms.

As long as people want to watch other people play sport, and as long as video games continue to get better and incorporate an ever greater degree of skill, then the sector will continue to grow. It’s not longer just a case of tuning in to a stream to watch footage of kids playing FIFA. It could turn into a genuine draw for people who want to follow the careers of esports players and teams. It’s just about entertainment, after all.