Chess as a Business: 10 Facts About the Economics of the Ancient Game
YEREVAN, July 20. /ARKA/. Chess has long since transcended the confines of gyms and amateur clubs. Today, online platforms with hundreds of millions of registered accounts operate around the game, tournaments with multimillion-dollar prize pools are organized, educational programs are developing, and the market for physical chess sets is expanding. ARKA News Agency has compiled ten facts about the modern economics of chess.
According to Fortune Business Insights, the global chess market was $3.45 billion in 2025 and could reach $7.66 billion by 2034. For comparison, the same agency estimated the entire board game market at $15.83 billion in 2025. However, these figures should be treated as estimates: research companies define the boundaries of the chess industry differently – for example, they may or may not include digital services, training, and certain categories of equipment.
Chess.com was founded in 2007 and initially developed without institutional funding. According to Fortune, citing the company itself, its valuation exceeded $1 billion in 2023. A more recent, precise valuation has not been disclosed: in June 2026, CVC Capital Partners invested in Chess.com, joining General Atlantic, but the parties did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. Therefore, a cautious public target is at least $1 billion. Today, Chess.com reports over 250 million registered members.
3. "The Queen Effect": 2.8 million new accounts and sales growth
Following the release of the Netflix miniseries "The Queen's Gambit" in the fall of 2020, sales of chess products increased significantly. According to research firm NPD, in the three weeks following the premiere, sales of chess sets in the US increased by 87%, while sales of printed chess books increased by 603%. NPD did not publicly disclose the absolute number of units sold or the monetary value.
The scale of the boom is evident in other metrics: Chess.com added a record 2.8 million new users in November 2020 alone. Spanish board manufacturer Rechapados Ferrer, whose products appeared in the series, reported an increase in annual orders from approximately 22,000 in 2020 to 45,000 in 2021. However, the growth can't be attributed solely to the series: demand was also supported by pandemic restrictions, streaming, and the growth of online tournaments.
4. The World Championship Match Became a Commercial Event
The 2024 World Championship Match between Gukesh Dommaraju and Ding Liren was held in Singapore with a prize fund of $2.5 million. According to the regulations, each victory in a single game earned $200,000, with the remaining prize fund divided equally between the participants. Google served as the match's title sponsor—the first time a technology company of its scale has received this status in the history of the World Chess Championship.
5. In 2024, two chess players earned over $1 million in prize money
According to Chess.com's calculations, two players surpassed the $1 million mark in tournament prize money in 2024: Gukesh Dommaraju earned approximately $1.58 million, and Ding Liren earned approximately $1.18 million. The methodology primarily took into account major individual international tournaments. Streaming, coaching, endorsements, appearance fees, and other income were not included, so prize money only represents a fraction of the professional chess economy.
6. Chess.com paid approximately $80 million for Carlsen's chess ecosystem
In 2022, Chess.com acquired Play Magnus Group, founded by Magnus Carlsen. The offer valued the company at 798.9 million Norwegian kroner, approximately $80–83 million at the then-current exchange rate. Along with it, Chess.com acquired the Chessable educational platform, the chess24 website, the Play Magnus app, and the Champions Chess Tour tournament series. This is one of the most illustrative examples of business consolidation around chess.
7. Education has created a separate economic ecosystem
According to a global FIDE study, over 25 million children are involved in educational chess, with approximately 237,000 teachers and coaches working in this field. Programs are funded from a variety of sources, including state and municipal budgets, parental contributions, grants, and donations. For example, the nonprofit organization Chess in the Schools reports that it has taught the game free of charge to over 500,000 children from socially vulnerable areas of New York City since 1986.
8. Armenia has made chess a public investment in education
In 2011, Armenia became the first country in the world to introduce chess as a compulsory subject in public schools for students in the second, third, and fourth grades. Initially, the program reached approximately 40,000 children and approximately 1,500 schools; approximately 1,200 teachers were trained to teach the game, and educational institutions received textbooks and chess sets. Thus, chess has become not only part of the national image but also a separate area of expenditure on education, training, and teaching materials.
9. Physical chessboards remain a significant product niche
Despite the growth of online play, demand for traditional chessboards and sets remains. DataHorizzon Research estimates the global chessboard market at $874 million in 2024 and forecasts it to grow to approximately $1.2 billion by 2033. This is a commercial estimate, dependent on the composition of the products being considered; other studies of narrower segments yield significantly different results. Collector's, designer, and electronic sets occupy a separate niche, the cost of which can be many times higher than mass-produced sets.
10. Chess has become a standalone media content
According to Esports Charts, broadcasts of the 2024 World Championship match peaked at approximately 518,000 concurrent viewers, with a total viewing time of approximately 12.9 million hours. While it would be an exaggeration to talk about millions of concurrent viewers, the combined audience for chess content is indeed large. For example, GothamChess channel creator Levi Rozman reports over 8 million subscribers and followers across his platforms. The economic model for such content includes advertising, paid subscriptions, affiliate integrations, and the sale of educational products.
Summary
The game, which originated approximately 1,500 years ago, today supports several economic models: digital subscriptions, advertising, tournaments, sponsorships, training, and equipment production. Available data makes it difficult to pin down the entire industry to a single, definitive figure, but the growing audience, prize pools, and interest from major brands indicate that chess's commercial potential continues to expand.
