You can officially get gaming at Walmart's Esports Arenas!
Walmart’s Esports Arenas Are Officially in Stores
Walmart has installed Esports Arenas in some of its stores, creating a place where people can play video games during their big shopping runs. Being the megastore that it is, there’s also plenty of gear meant for the Esports community available to purchase, and everything from casual online play to tournaments can be held in each arena.
Check out 10 other things you might not know about Walmart.
Get Gaming at Walmart’s All-New Arcade
The Walmart Esports Arena usually hosts league nights of competitive gaming during the weekdays as well as tournaments on the weekends, but also has open play sessions available. You can pay $5 per hour to do open play whenever you want or participate in league nights for $10 a night.
Through this unique joint venture, Walmart has a rare opportunity to revitalize arcade culture in the US. It has essentially become a one-stop spot to get your snacks and drinks, any equipment you need to play, with an actual space and opportunity to play against others. Packaging all of those together in one spot suddenly makes Walmart a way more attractive space to go and hang out, since you can spend an hour or two gaming without having to venture elsewhere to pick up snacks or equipment.
Walmart now is a far cry from the first Walmart which opened in 1962. Here’s what it looked like.
Where Do We Sign Up?
In addition, Walmart makes the tournament and e-sports community way more accessible, since it has locations all over the country. Rural, suburban and urban areas all now have the potential to be access points to the world’s biggest tournaments and competitive gaming leagues, since Walmart can host big-name tournaments at any location it sets up an Esports Arena at.
For the time being, the Esports Arena locations are in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Fort Worth, Texas, Roseville, California, Tulsa, Oklahoma and Nashville, Tennessee.
This should also jump out at food brands since an intersection of food and gaming is starting to form. With companies like Nissin Cup Noodles and Giant Foods already backing major tournaments and Esports teams, it seems like the next big pathway for growth for the food world may come from these gaming partnerships. Time will tell if that truly turns out to be the case, but strong evidence for that is already present.
