Ten percent of U.S. broadband households are watching esports, according to new esports video gaming research from Parks Associates.
The research firm defines esports as “professionally or semi-professionally organized competitive video gaming events, including popular gaming titles such as ‘League of Legends,’ ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Street Fighter.’
Esports viewers run younger than the general population, according to the report, which notes that the esports audience is typically comprised of younger male gamers under 35. This is an attractive audience, with esports watchers spending more than twice as much as non-esports viewers on non-TV video entertainment, $47.23 monthly compared to an average of $22.97 for non-esports viewers.
“Esports is a young, dynamic, and fast-growing industry,” said Hunter Sappington, Parks Associates research analyst, in a prepared statement. “While viewership of many traditional sports is waning, esports is well positioned to capture the attention of a generation that grew up playing video games. Esports is currently a niche market, but it has the ability to engage often hard-to-reach demographics.”
Esports Video Gaming Research
Among the report’s other findings:
- The most popular sites for watching esports are YouTube and Twitch.tv. A little more than six in 10 (61%) of those surveyed say they watch on YouTube and 45% use Twitch. More than half of viewers use more than one platform to view esports.
- More than four in 10 (41%) of esports viewers say that they would be likely or very likely to pay for a subscription to watch esports events and content, while nearly as many (39%) of esports viewers are likely or very likely to pay to watch esports on a per-game or per-event basis.
- Two-thirds of those surveyed turn to computers to watch esports, followed by 45% using TVs and 34% using a smartphone.
