The barriers to esports viewing continue to fall away as the global influence of esports continues to grow. Awareness and interest have been increasing for years, and the shutdown of traditional sports and reliance on gaming during the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak accelerated this trend.

The Report covers consumer evolvement with esports within the past 12 months, the trend of top driven streaming platforms, spending on esports related products and game-playing consumers’ perception of esports tournaments. Additionally, the Report also addresses the trend of esports going forward as a professional competitive sport through different consumer demographics.

Key issues covered in this Report:

• The impact of COVID-19 on consumer behaviour and the esports market

• eSports’ licensing and business model extensions going forward

• How brands can work with different platforms to reach different consumer demographics

According to the GPC, esports refer to competitions among video game players using digital devices as sports equipment.

This Report will discuss esports, mainly focusing on official esports tournaments, including both amateur tournaments like the King of Glory Quanmin Tournament (王者荣耀全民赛) and professional tournaments like PUBG Asia International (绝地求生亚洲邀请赛) and World Championship of Hearthstone (炉石传说世界锦标赛). eSports mainly refer to the following types of online games:

• Shooting (including first personal and third personal, eg PUBG, CS:GO)

• Card (eg Clash Royale)

• MOBA (eg LOL, Honor of Kings)

• Real-time strategy (eg Age of Empires)

• Role-playing (eg Fantasy Westward Journey)

• Music (eg QQ Dancer, Rhythm Master)

• Racing

• Traditional card and chess games (eg mahjong, go)

• Arcade (eg fighting)

• Asymmetric competition (eg The fifth personality)

• Puzzle (eg Craz3 Match)

• IO games (eg Agar.io, Slither.io)

• Sports (eg NBA 4K)

• Trivia

• Simulation (eg Travel Frog)

• Sandbox (eg Minecraft)

• eSports enthusiasts are those who watch esports contents once a week or more

• Casual esports viewers are those who have watched sports activities in the last 12 months but between 1-3 times a month to once every 4-6 months

• Other video game content (including non-competitive video game viewing) is discussed in the context of esports but is not the primary focus.