Last year, 254,000 individuals attended Gamescom. This year that figure grew to 275,000 and amongst those attendees, 223,000 stopped by the ESL (Electronic Sports League) arena to check out competitive gaming live in both StarCraft 2 and League of Legends, as well as several console titles. Perhaps more impressive was the ESL's live feed, which was visited by 500 percent more people than last year.

Turtle Entertainment, the organizer of ESL at Gamescom, is clearly happy with the turnout of what was the first stop on the ESL Pro Series Winter season 2011, Germany's national video game league. "The response of the visitors in our hall was overwhelmingly positive," said Turtle Entertainment's managing director Ralf Reichert. "Gamescom has proven once again that eSports has thousands of enthusiastic followers, not only in the world but also in Germany."

Hit the jump for the full press release.