With World of Tanks, publisher Wargaming.net created a successful free-to-play tank battle MMO and now intends a broader move into the esports arena. Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kisyli recently announced at a press conference in Warsaw that he intends to invest heavily this year into electronic sports following an upswing in interest for World of Tanks in the past two years.

At the press conference, Kisyli announced a $10 million investment the company will to put into esports this year. This is a $2 million step up from the $8 million that the company put into esports in 2013.

The popularity of World of Tanks as an esports platform revealed by stats that show 30,000 players and a total of 120 tournaments played in 2012. This means that some 200,000 players participated in a total of more than 1,000 tournaments. This trend grew to about 40,000 teams made up of 7 or more players fighting for top honors in 2013, bringing the player numbers up to about 200,000.

“With our esports team we founded a company within the company,” Kisyli said. “They take care not only about game features to cater to spectators, but also about the physical organisation of the tournaments. In the beginning, it was not so much us who wanted to introduce World of Tanks to esports, it was the players themselves who wanted to be more competitive.”

World of Tanks has developed internationally into a tremendous popular online game. More than 80 million players worldwide have registered since its release. A version for Xbox 360 is available, while a version for Xbox One is still being considered. Wargaming.net’s developers also plan a comprehensive update that will completely revise the graphics of the game.

Esports is part of a growing trend in the field of videogames. As a growing trend, esports teams have built up around popular games including Blizzard’s Starcraft and Riot Games’s League of Legends (LoL). Riot is up to 28 million daily players in LoL, and the Season 3 World Championships brought over 32 million viewers online last year.

League of Legends played a role in pioneering the Western esports industry. Riot Games has consistently produced high-quality and entertaining events such as WCS Europe and the Intel Extreme Masters series. Last year, the gaming company claimed its largest esports event yet, where the League of Legends Season 3 World Championship broadcast was watched by 32 million people. Earlier this year, web-based eaports broadcast platform ESGN TV kicked off its first season of “Fight Night” – StarCraft II Edition. The show has seen 30,000 concurrent viewers for an episode and 70,000 unique views per day on average.

[Top image credit: Wargaming.net World of Tanks, http://worldoftanks.com/]