(Yicai Global) June 28 -- E-sports players are a scarce commodity in China, with a big sucking sound in the entire market, and demand projected at 2 million in five years.

This was the conclusion of China's agency overseeing human resources and social security, China News Agency reported.

The county now has a mere 500,000 of these professional gamers concentrated in the megacities of Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Chengdu and Chongqing, and in Jiangsu province.

E-sports players are those who vie in various competitions or engage in training, or take part in experiential or performance events

E-sports, which developed from computer games are acts of intellectual confrontation between people using electronic devices as sports equipment.

Players are generally young, with 80 percent of those surveyed under 30, per the report. Their educational backgrounds comprise high school (46 percent), junior college (38 percent) and undergraduate and above (16 percent).

China's e-sports sector was worth CNY94 billion (USD13.7 billion) last year and is predicted to top CNY135 billion next year.

It has already become the world's most influential market and the one with the greatest potential, said the report, citing third-party Chinese institutional data.

Less than 15 percent of e-player positions have thus far been filled, incomplete data show, according to the report.

Editor: Ben Armour