The Growth of Esports

The e-sports industry has seen tremendous growth over the past few years; this has been largely due to the increase in viewership, however, the growth is not only because of revenue generated by the viewers.  Brands such as Coca Cola, Red Bull and Mercedes-Benz have sensed the potential of this industry and are investing in e-sports marketing; this is what has led to the dramatic increase in revenue.

There has been a significant increase in e-sports viewers. In 2018 the audience grew to almost 400 million, more people are also learning about it as awareness reached 1.43 billion in the same year. The future looks promising according to these statistics.

Platforms have aided in accelerating the growth of this industry. YouTube and Twitch are the frontrunners with over a million active streamers, this number grows steadily.

The amount of time spent watching e-sports videos has increased rapidly over the past few years and in 2018 people watched an astounding 6.6 billion hours of it worldwide. The industry is getting more eyeballs and brands are looking to cash in through e-sports marketing. This is achieved by product positioning, ads, reviews and influencer marketing.

Investors have flocked to the industry due to its increased popularity. A large chunk of e-sports money comes from brand contributions. In 2018 this was almost 80% which is around 700 million dollars.

E-sports have also experienced growth in terms of prize pools with 1.5 billion dollars being divvied up among the almost 3500 tournaments held in 2018.

Statistics clearly show a rapidly growing industry with huge potential and with this brands are looking to seize the opportunity to promote their products.