The esports market is going from strength to strength and there is much promise for the future of the industry. This is because esports covers many different devices from consoles to mobile to VR (virtual reality), all of which have room to grow with continued hardware improvements.

Companies are getting involved through sponsorships but also partnering with esports stars for promotional campaigns. Celebrities are further enhancing the industry by building their own esports teams or joining in with the gaming.

Major TV broadcaster, Sky, has shown esports content on its platform and more of this will be crucial for creating a more diverse audience for the activity. Currently the viewers are significantly weighted towards Millennials, despite the fact that around half of Generation X plays video games. Broadcasting esports on TV will be important for targeting more Generation X gamers.

This Report analyses the competitive gaming market, also known as esports, covering console, PC, tablet, mobile and VR gaming. The Report also discusses gameplay streaming and watching. Gameplay streams are defined as users broadcasting their gaming content online for an audience to watch, whether that is competitive gaming or not.

Market size data for this Report is supplied by Newzoo, which defines esports for the purposes of its data as “Competitive gaming at a professional level and in an organized format (a tournament or league) with a specific goal (ie, winning a champion title or prize money) and a clear distinction between players and teams that are competing against each other.”