Esports has been a thing since the 90s with Quake and Unreal tournaments.
I agree with the other poster, Esports isn’t a massive money maker like how the world championships for scrabble aren’t a massive money maker either.
It’s extremely niche and the audience demographics are mostly poor, it’s not a boon you think it is.
You can be smart about it like Valve and Riot or you can be stupid about it like Blizzard and Faze. Although Faze seems to be smart in how stupid the execution was.
If esports couldn’t make it during the pandemic, I doubt it would make it now when money is very expensive.