What you need to know
The e-sports market has enjoyed fast growth between 2016 and 2018, with an average growth rate of 51%. The market is driving the development of the live streaming market, which is consumers’ main channel for viewing e-sport tournaments and keeping updated. Demand among e-sports fans has expanded from solely online activities to offline events. Watching live e-sports tournaments in person and participating in tournaments are the two core unmet needs. This indicates the huge potential of e-sports stadiums as the main venues for holding amateur tournaments and places where gamers can receive training sessions. The approval of the government and the recognition of the Asian Games guarantee the future development of the e-sports market. The key challenge lies in how to win support from the International Olympic Committee without eliminating the key competitive elements in games and compromising the playing experience of gamers.
This Report identifies the opportunities for game developers, tournament organisers and potential industries that could cooperate with the e-sports market. This Report investigates the penetration rates of e-sports related activities, popular tournament viewing platforms, popular e-sports tournaments, information channels of tournaments, motivations to watch tournaments and Chinese consumers’ attitudes towards e-sports.
Covered in this Report
According to GPC (Game Publishing Committee), e-sports refer to competitions among video game players, using digital devices as sports equipment.
This Report will discuss e-sports, mainly focusing on official e-sports 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). E-sports 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)
