We recently compiled a list of the 10 Best Esports Stocks to Buy Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) stands against the other esports stocks.

The esports industry is witnessing significant growth and is expected to continue growing. The COVID-19 pandemic fueled the trend of gaming and esports as people turned to online gaming for entertainment and this led to a surge in participation and viewership. In more recent times, the rising demand for video games combined with the rise of live-streaming platforms has continued to support this trend and further boost the growth of the esports industry.

According to a report by The Business Research Company, the global esports market was valued at $2.73 billion in 2024. The market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.2% during 2025-2029 to reach a value of $7.03 billion by the end of the forecast period. In 2024, North America was the largest region in the global esports market.

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Other factors that are fueling the industry’s growth include the professionalization of esports and the rise in video gaming competitions around the world. The first-ever Esports World Cup was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in July and August 2024. The event saw more than 1,500 players and included 23 competitions across 22 different video games like Call of Duty and Fortnite. The Esports World Cup in 2024 offered a massive prize pool of $60 million. The event attracted significant attention from sponsors and media and this contributed to the growth of esports globally. According to the Esports World Cup Foundation, the competition will take place annually in Saudi Arabia in Riyadh Boulevard City.

On February 11, the Esports World Cup Foundation announced that the first edition of the Olympic Esports Games will be held in 2027 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Esports World Cup Foundation has been named a founding partner and will work alongside the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to organize the event. This initiative aims to bridge the gap between esports and traditional sports through nation-based tournaments. The Road to the Games will start in 2025. It seems that esports is on track to become even more popular in the near future.

Methodology

To compile our list of the 10 best esports stocks to buy now, we looked for the largest video game and esports companies. We also sifted through our own rankings, financial media reports, ETFs, and various online resources to compile a list of the best esports stocks. From an initial list of over 25 stocks, we focused on the top 10 stocks most favored by institutional investors. Data for the hedge fund sentiment surrounding each stock was taken from Insider Monkey’s Q3 2024 database of 900 elite hedge funds. The 10 best esports stocks to buy now were then ranked in ascending order based on the number of hedge funds holding stakes in them as of Q3 2024.

Why do we care about what hedge funds do? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 193

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is an American technology company that plays a crucial role in the esports industry through its powerful graphics processing units (GPUs). Since the invention of the GPU in 1999, the company has revolutionized computer graphics and powered the growth of PC gaming. NVIDIA Corporation’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) GeForce line of GPUs provides high-performance graphics and is particularly popular among professional gamers. In 2020, the company also launched GeForce NOW, a cloud-based gaming service that lets players stream games directly from the cloud to various devices, including desktops, laptops, and smartphones. NVDA is one of the best esports stocks to buy.

In the gaming industry, NVIDIA Corporation’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) strategy is focused on integrating AI to enhance gaming experiences. On January 6, the company unveiled the GeForce RTX 50 Series Desktop and Laptop GPUs for gamers, creators, and developers. Powered by the Blackwell architecture, fifth-generation Tensor Cores, and fourth-generation RT, these advanced GPUs deliver breakthroughs in AI-driven rendering, including neural shaders, digital human technologies, geometry, and lighting. The GeForce RTX 5090 GPU is the fastest GeForce RTX GPU to date and it delivers over 3,352 trillion AI operations per second (TOPS) of computing power.

The company’s GeForce RTX 50 Series GPU’s power autonomous game characters alongside game rendering. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is introducing a suite of new ACE technologies that bring game characters to life with generative AI and allow game characters to perceive, plan, and act like human players. The company is partnering with leading game developers to incorporate ACE autonomous game characters into titles such as PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, inZOI, and NARAKA: BLADEPOINT MOBILE PC VERSION.

Overall, NVDA ranks 2nd on our list of the best esports stocks to buy now. While we acknowledge the potential of NVDA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than NVDA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.