Ball State Daily

Growing pains of a growing eSports audience

By Gunner Masters In recent years, gaming and eSports have exploded onto computer screens across the world with audience growth projected to reach 589 million by 2020 according to Newzoo’s 2017 "Global Esports Market Report." The same report also projects total revenue to reach $1.5 billion the same year. However, a large contribution to the expansion of eSports (particularly in Western countries) is a group often dissociated from mainstream gaming—women.

Image from Newzoo 2017 Global Market eSports Market Report

Newzoo’s report broke down the overall viewership by age and gender into two categories: “Esports Enthusiasts” and “Occasional Viewers” with both being male dominated, but each had significant female viewership with 29 percent of Esports Enthusiasts and 39 percent of Occasional Viewers being female. Among both men and women, the largest percentage of viewers fell into the 21-35 age range. Nielsen studied eSports audiences in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany for their Esports Playbook and broke down male and female livestream viewers across the four markets into “weekly or more often” and “monthly”.