Esports Viewing is on the Rise

Parks Associates released new research on esports. They are defined as “professionally or semi-professionally organized competitive video gaming events,” which include big-name titles like “League of Legends,” “Call of Duty,” and “Street Fighter.” It is a rapidly growing industry.

Reportedly 10% of U.S. households watch esports, while 62% play video games at least one hour per week. Even though esports is currently a niche market, it is well-positioned to capture the attention of the generation that grew up playing video games and continues to do so today.

Hunter Sappington, Research Analyst at Parks Associates, says that esports “has the ability to engage often hard-to-reach demographics,” and that overall “for distributors, including pay-TV providers, OTT services, and social media platforms, esports represents an opportunity to complement existing content and grow the viewing audience.”

Additional data:

• YouTube and Twitch.tv are the two most popular sites used to watch esports.
• 61% of viewers say that they watch on YouTube and 45% using Twitch.
• More than one-half of viewers use more than one platform to watch esports.
• 41% of esports viewers say that they would be likely or very likely to pay for a subscription to watch esports events and content.
• 39% of esports viewers are likely or very likely to pay to watch esports on a per-game or per-event basis.
• Computers are the most popular device category used to watch esports.
• 67% of viewers use computers to watch esports.
• 45% of viewers use TVs to watch esports.
• 34% of viewers use a smartphone to watch esports.