eSports has grown in popularity beyond being a niche form of entertainment to becoming a powerful means to engage millennial audiences.  

There’s significant investment from major media corporations, mainstream advertisers and professional sports franchises, demonstrating the emerging importance of eSports.

In the past few years, eSports has seen significant changes from being played in small groups, to occupying world-class stadiums which accommodate tens of thousands of fans, with many more viewers online. The value of the eSports market is growing rapidly with both viewers and the prize money at stake rivalling that of traditional sports. As the first digitally-native sport, eSports is primarily streamed online and is most popular with younger male audiences. With similar properties to traditional sport, the opportunity to engage with these hard-to-reach millennials is appealing to advertisers, traditional broadcasters and traditional sports teams alike. In this report, we look at what is eSports, who is watching, how big is it, the eSports ecosystem, the eSports revenue model and the potential implications for traditional sports.