Market Research : eSport is a 400m customers market

Here’s a sector where we haven’t done any market research so far : eSport.
At IBC 2017 I attended a presentation by Michiel Bakker (of Ginx TV) who really caught my attention (it’s probably a sign that I’m getting old, hence my lack of interest fir this growing market trend).
Here are a few figures that I found especially striking

• eSport is overtaking traditional sports : there were more viewers (43 millions) for League of Legends Season 6 than for the MLB world series(40 millions) or the NBA finals (31.02 millions).
• the size of the market is currently 400 millions people (191 m eSport enthusiasts and 194 m occasional viewers) and is expected to grow to 450 millions in 2018, 516 millions in 2019 and 589 millions in 2020. Who would have expected 10 years ago that eSport would have become such a massive trend. Certainly not me.
• 4 games dominate the market (Tier 1) : Dota2, Hearthstones, Counter Strike Globale Offensive, Leagues of Legends. Tier 2 is made up of 7 games, Tier 3 of 6 games (more info here)
• money prizes associated to eSport tournaments have increased dramatically since 2005 ($3.5m). Prizes were rather stable until 2010 ($5.2m) and then increased steadily, almost doubling each year to reach $19.8m in 2013, $36m in 2014, $61m in 2015 and $93m in 2016.

Photo : shutterstock