Quake, esports' elder statesman, may have found its space in the segment as a niche offering

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When talking about the greatest video games ever, one name that pops up often is Quake, id Software’s seminal first-person shooter that also holds sway as one of the best video game franchises of all time. It was initially published by GT Interactive Software before the rights were taken over in 2010 by Bethesda Softworks, which came under Microsoft’s purview in 2021 as part of the software giant’s acquisition of parent company ZeniMax.

Quake came into existence as a franchise to succeed id's pioneering first-person shooter series, Doom, which first came out in 1993. The former built on its predecessor's swift gameplay, game engine, and 3D graphics capabilities. Most importantly, it took the multiplayer aspects of Doom to a whole new level by introducing the online multiplayer feature. Thus began a love affair in online gaming that continues to this day, marking Quake as a figurehead in a revolution that took video gaming to new heights and laid the foundation for the kind of mechanics we see as common today.

Apparently, Quake was not an easy game to make, if one of the developers, John Romero, is to be believed. He had said a few years back:

Quake 1, the terrifying single-player and blast-tastic multiplayer full 3D shooter from 1996, was tough to make. However, it was all worth it as the game still stands the test of time and is still played every day.

What made Quake so good for fans of a bygone era was its never-before-seen provision for TCP/IP connections, making it one of the first FPS titles that could be played on the internet instead of a LAN. Interestingly, the first game was pretty unsuccessful as a single-player offering, but it exploded in popularity thanks to this multiplayer component.

It’s safe to say that there is no competitive esports as we see it today without Quake and its absurdly fun yet gory gameplay. With the series focusing on the online multiplayer aspect, updates such as QuakeWorld and software like QuakeSpy brought in more accessibility and reliability to online gameplay, thus bringing in players in hordes as they looked to get in on the trendiest game at that time.

Speaking of Quake and esports...

Quake, its contributions to esports history, and current scene

Quake has quite a relationship with esports and its growth as a major player in the competitive arena. It was one of the earliest first-person shooter games that played a significant role in popularizing esports and its viability as a career for talented gamers.

With its dark atmosphere, medieval maze-like environments, and wide selection of weapons inspired by Doom, the game was seemingly made for a competitive setting. And with its popularity soaring every day, there was no dearth of players with the potential to take it to the next level when it came to the esports side. And boy did it make a mark.

Quake saw many big tournaments spawn, leading to a vibrant esports scene taking competitive gaming into new grounds.

Here’s an interesting trivia: Dennis “Thresh” Fong is considered the first professional gamer in history by Guinness World Records. He won what many consider the first-ever esports event, The Red Annihilation, which had 200 participants, in 1997, and was gifted a Ferrari 328 GTS that belonged to developer John Carmack!

In terms of its competitive scenario, some main Quake tournaments include the World Championships and the DreamHack events, jointly hosted by Bethesda and PGL. There has been almost $4 million in prize money distributed across its competitions, with the most recent events taking place through the latest title in the franchise, Quake Champions.

The Quake Pro League, whose first season began in July 2019 at QuakeCon 2019, ended at the next year’s QuakeCon, although it was an online event due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The QPL is in its fourth season currently, having begun in January this year, and it will culminate with the three-day Quake World Championship in August.

The entire process involves an ‘eighteen-week regular season for QPL players and eight weeks of qualifiers for challengers where they will compete in cross-regional round-robin matches.’ 

There are no more regional divisions, meaning QPL gamers will compete in a global round-robin format. Their records will be vital in deciding their prizes and seeds ahead of the QWC.

The Quake World Championship will see four groups of four players in each contest on the first day. Eight Qualifiers and the bottom eight seeded Quake Pro League gamers will make up these pools, with the top two from each group sealing their berths for day two, where the top eight seeded QPL gamers and these eight qualified players will battle it out in a sixteen-person double elimination bracket. Their Quake Pro League seeds will be determined based on regular season performances.

Despite such a well-set esports scene and a loyal fanbase that swears by these games no matter what, Quake has seen its competitive division fall behind many other games, including those that have come out as early as 2021 (Valorant). There are many factors to this non-performance, and we’ll try to delve into the details below.

What ails Quake and its esports scene today?

Despite its obvious history and legacy, the esports division of Quake has not been the most popular or seen the best days recently. Games like League of Legends, Call of Duty, CS:GO, Dota 2, Rainbow Six Siege, and Rockery League have long since become prime destinations for esports lovers, leaving behind the beloved original FPS.

Even Halo, Quake’s earliest contemporary and rival, seems to have established a more robust and followed esports scene, despite both now falling under the same parent organization (Microsoft).

The above image clearly shows that despite being the oldest among the list of games and arguably being the most popular of the lot, Quake falls behind in two vital metrics. In terms of the overall prize pool and Peak Viewers, it lags far behind modern behemoths like LoL, CS:GO, and Fortnite.

This shows that there is not enough demand for watching the game, affecting how many play and stream it. The fact that LoL pulls in 163 times the number of PV as Quake does not make for good reading. It creates a cycle where lesser players lead to lesser streams that leads to lesser viewers, finally impacting the number of new gamers joining. Eventually, that forces tournament organizers to curtail the prize money on offer and the number of events being held. That is perhaps something that Bethesda and PGL can work on from the 2023 season onwards.

Of course, one accompanying factor is that there have not been nearly enough tournaments held in Quake to make a significant dent in the markets of the other games. That is possibly an indication that its early days had neither the frenzy for competitive play nor the frequency of tournaments as seen today and that this bled into the title’s developers and publishers not really putting in more effort to build a robust and self-sustaining esports scenario.

There is also the fact that the FPS genre has been saturated with not only the games mentioned above but also the likes of PUBG, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch 2, and even Grand Theft Auto V. With these titles all being modern hits and offering perhaps more in terms of overall mechanics, and crucially, competent single-player campaigns, the appeal for Quake seems to be dwindling with each passing week.

What next for this legendary franchise?

Quake and the various games in the franchise are definitely popular today, but this seemingly extends to a niche crowd and players, rather than the overall video gaming ecosystem. Perhaps it is the changing times and advances in technology, or just the general diversity of options available to gamers in the FPS, action, and thriller genres, that might be the cause. However, it has led to a decline in importance for this 90s masterpiece.

There will always be time and space for a game like Quake in the modern gaming lexicon and the esports market, but perhaps there is a ceiling that unfortunately looks unlikely to be broken anytime soon.

That is not a bad thing, though, for in a world that increasingly values hot takes, options aplenty (sometimes in excess of what is necessary), and has the monetary aspect at the forefront, a retro title like Quake, with its throwback gameplay and legendary blast-tastic environments, can be a relief, a gateway to a simpler time and a period when enjoying the game was more vital than winnings, earnings and subscriber counts.