OOne of ADANAI’s readers (thank you) sent in the following info-graphic on eSports and wanted to share it with the ADANAI community. It does a great job of graphically laying out some fascinating eSports statistics. A few weeks ago ADANAI published this article on the history of eSports and plans to publish more on the topic. For the uninitiated, eSports is a general term used to describe video game competitions. Much like athletic sporting events, eSports games are often played before live audiences and are sometimes broadcast over the Internet.  eSports is a massive force coming this way and most don’t know much (if anything) about it. In Korea, it is as popular as any traditional sport. In 2005, 120,000 people in Korea filled a stadium to watch the “Starcraft” championship. There are 12 professional “Starcraft” teams in Korea with the highest paid “athletes” making $160,000 in salary plus endorsements.  Here are some interesting statistics on eSports as a whole:

• 

  While this doesn’t look like a marquee UFC match-up, eSports players are building brand equity

  There are 400 million players of multiplayer online games in the world.  This compares to 500 million fans for Formula 1, the #2 worldwide sport (behind soccer).

• There is $500 million of secondary market activity in the multiplayer world (buying and selling of accounts and in-game services – here is a great example.)
• The “League of Legends” 2012 championship had 8.3 million viewers.  To put that in perspective, the seven games of the 2013 NBA finals between the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs averaged 17.7 million viewers per game.  NBC is jumping for joy with the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup averaging 5.4 million viewers per game after four games – significantly less than the “League of Legends” championship.
• The “League of Legends” 2012 championship prize pool was $5 million.  The Masters had a prize pool of $8 million in 2013.
• The average gamer plays 22 hours/week while the average American watches TV 28 hours/week.  The average gamer only watches TV 7.7 hours/week.
• 40% of all gamers are female.

While the NFL or NBA don’t need to worry about their place at the top of the US professional sports landscape, don’t be surprised if you turn on ESPN sometime soon and find eSports coverage. The expanding number of broadcast outlets focused on sports (FOX sports 1, NBC Sports and Al Jazeera Sports are all ramping up to compete with ESPN), the popularity of video games, and the increasing value of live sports content to broadcasters all bode well for the future of eSports as a spectator sport in America.

Image source: www.onlinegamedesignschools.org

Comments

Comments