Esports as a culture is booming day by day. Nobody imagined playing games for fun can be monetized! With each passing year, the number of esports enthusiasts is growing. Different layers of businesses growing up surrounding the games people love. Pro players are no less than celebrities now, and countless enthusiasts are trying to become just like them. One thing keeps the wheel of the esports-viewership business spinning all along – Fans. Fans are always an important part of any professional show business. Just like any sports or entertainment industry, esports is also a fan favourite. Games are products, and companies want their products to be popular.
What is Gaming Viewership
Gaming viewership refers to the number of views any particular game or tournament gets. To put it simply, when a game is popular, gamers want to watch it more. With more fans, the viewership grows. This viewership can either increase or decrease with time. When pro players engage themselves in live tournaments and games, fans love to watch them play. The same principle is valid for live streaming of games on Twitch, YouTube, and Mixer.
Individual streamers also have their own respective viewer-base which is stable and consistently increasing. The audience pool of a game reflects exactly how popular the game is. Popular games attract investors and sponsors into the business. Gaming viewership doesn’t only influence the revenue associated with the business but also influence certain age groups to watch more streams.
How esports viewership data influence the esports market
The gaming viewership data accumulated from many different sources can project the popularity of a particular event or game. It is this projection that will help the gamers acquire their share of profit from playing the game apart from the event money. In a way, the sponsorship offers are also influenced by the number of audiences that a particular gaming team or player holds.
For example, pro players like Dendi (DOTA 2) or Faker (League of Legends) have a bigger fan base than any budding streamer or gamer. As a result, the former is likely to attract more views or audiences to their games than others. This factor majorly influences the gaming business and hence sponsors and organizations will insist on having these pro players on their tournaments or events. The number of audiences will then directly attract more spotlight on the tournament, as a result increasing its audience and viewership too. This will motivate more investors and sponsors to engage in that event as there will be more advertising revenue coming out of it.
The Fan Factor
These sponsors want the maximum number of engagements to sell their products and merchandise. That is the reason the number of audiences will directly influence the number of investors which will allow the cash flow into the industry. This is the case with most gaming events and their organizers. Everyone wants a good audience pool. However, regions are also a factor that can decide the number of audiences. Region with the maximum gaming audience attracts more esports events than the other. These regions are likely to engage more in the event or gaming streams. As a result, the popularity of the event will go up and the sponsors will be happy to invest more.
Just like any other sports, gaming fans love to buy team merchandise and in-game skins to support their team or favourite game. Now, these purchases will only go up with passing years as more fans get hooked to the world of esports. But as for now, the profit out of these purchases is directly influenced by the number of audience a particular game or gaming team shares. When Dendi (DOTA2) started playing the hero Pudge in the game more often, his fans also reciprocated the same. Pudge skin sales in the game went up by a great margin and pudge cosplays became a common sight in different DOTA2 events.
What are the top regions based on esports Viewership?
With the growing buzz about esports, the audience pool for watching pro players battle it out virtually is increasing every day. People are actually ready to throw bucks for watching their favourite team play. As the professional gaming market penetrates the deep reaches of the world, more and more esports enthusiasts will show up supporting their favourite game.
Sometimes particular games are also responsible for churning the audiences and increasing the popularity of the sport. For example, recently Mobile gaming has been gaining ground extensively in parts of the ASIA pacific. Games like PUBG mobile and Garena Free Fire have become fan favourites. They alone have resulted in a huge gain in gaming audience numbers. Let’s look at all the top regions of the world based on the gaming audience.
The Asia Pacific
| Viewership Percentage |
| 57 % |
The Asia Pacific regions of China, Korea, and Japan lead the way in terms of gaming viewership and audience. More than half the total percentage of Esports audience are from the Asia Pacific region. This indicates that the maximum number of people from this region are esports enthusiasts and act as major revenue churning base for the gaming industries. Korea is allegedly known as the birthplace of Esports. China and Japan also consider esports as a great form of entertainment and business at the same time. This is the prime reason why lots of organizers are looking to host tournaments and events more often in this part of the world.
Europe
| Viewership Percentage |
| 16 % |
Europeans come second in terms of gaming enthusiasm. Countries like Ukraine, Sweden, Russia, Germany hosts a lot of budding gamers and enthusiasts. They have started to embrace the professional gaming scene and the audience pool is also going up with each passing year.
North America
| Viewership Percentage |
| 12% |
North American Esports audiences are not very far behind the Europeans in terms of numbers. Thanks to newer innovations and games people are now more drawn towards esports than they ever were. Gaming as a profession is slowly getting recognized more often in North American states.
Rest of the world
| Viewership Percentage |
| 15 % |
There are still many parts of the world that have not reciprocated the response to the gaming profession like the others. Parts of Africa and the mid-west are yet to embrace the world of Esports quite that way. But with passing years the audience pool in these parts is also expected to grow.
What are the most viewed esports games and tournaments?
In 2019, the League of Legends world championship was the most viewed gaming event according to viewership data on YouTube, Twitch, and Mixer. Dota 2 and CS: GO are also not far behind in terms of the number of audiences. Different games are penetrating the market more often than ever. The title of the most-viewed game is not something that will stay put for years. PUBG Mobile and other online mobile games are also gaining popularity overnight. Very soon the total gaming audience of the world will increase massively and directly influence the gaming industry as well.
