Video games have been popular since the late 1970s, but for the longest time, the gaming community operated as its own little niche, dwarfed by more traditional sports and other forms of entertainment.
With the advent of eSports, the same can no longer be said. Today, the eSports industry is in hot pursuit of leagues like the NFL and MLB when it comes to key metrics like popularity and revenue.
It is projected that eSports will reach $1.25 billion in revenue by 2020, in addition to having a global audience of over 400 million by that same year. The top eSport professionals, like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, are already making upwards of $500,000 per month. Major eSport events are selling out venues, like the Barclays Center, and Disney’s ESPN recently signed a deal with a major eSports league to provide live coverage of the gaming competition.
These recent developments sparked LendEDU’s interest in finding out more about just how fanatical these eSports enthusiasts really are and how much money they are spending on that fandom.
In our survey of 1,000 self-identified eSport fans, we came away with the following key findings:
- 62% of respondents indicated that they have spent money on eSportsbefore, with the estimated average eSport expenditure coming in at $566 per year.
- 49% of respondents would rather spend money on eSport event ticketsinstead of sporting or concert tickets. Further, 51% of respondents would rather spend money on eSport merchandise instead of sporting merchandise.
- If they only could afford one, 45% of parents would rather pay for their child’s one-on-one video game lessons instead of sport or academic lessons.
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Full Survey Results
(All survey results derive from an online survey of 1,000 adult Americans that identified themselves as eSports fans)
1. How long have you been a fan of eSports?
a. 13 percent of respondents answered “Less than one year.”
b. 30 percent of respondents answered “One to three years.”
c. 24 percent of respondents answered “Four to seven years.”
d. 12 percent of respondents answered “Eight to ten years.”
e. 21 percent of respondents answered “Over ten years.”
2. Have you ever spent money on eSports including on things like Twitch subscriptions or donations, event tickets, merchandise, or gambling?
a. 62 percent of respondents answered “Yes.”
b. 33 percent of respondents answered “No.”
c. 5 percent of respondents answered “I’d rather not say.”
3. (Asked only to those who answered “A” to Q2) Specifically, how much money do you estimate you spend or will spend annually in-total on all things eSports?
a. The average annual spend on all things eSports was $566.
b. The median annual spend on all things eSports was $200.
4. (Asked only to those who answered “A” to Q2) Specifically, how much money do you estimate you spend or will spend annually on eSport event tickets?
a. 21 percent of eSport spenders indicated that they will not/do not spend money on eSport event tickets specifically.
b. Amongst those that will spend on eSport event tickets, the average annual spend was $440.
c. Amongst those that will spend on eSport event tickets, the median annual spend was $200.
5. (Asked only to those who answered “A” to Q2) Would you rather spend money on a ticket to an eSport event or a ticket to a major sporting/entertainment event like an NFL or NBA game, or popular concert?
a. 49 percent of respondents answered “I’d rather spend my money on the eSport event ticket.”
b. 39 percent of respondents answered “I’d rather spend my money on the sporting or concert ticket.”
c. 12 percent of respondents answered “Not sure.”
6. (Asked only to those who answered “A” to Q2) Specifically, how much money do you estimate you spend or will spend annually on a subscription through a streaming service like Twitch to watch a professional eSport gamer?
a. 17 percent of eSport spenders indicated that they will not/do not spend money on a subscription through a streaming service like Twitch specifically.
b. Amongst those that will spend on a subscription, the average annual spend was $286.
c. Amongst those that will spend on a subscription, the median annual spend was $100.
7. (Asked only to those who answered “A” to Q2) Would you rather spend money on a subscription through a streaming service like Twitch to watch others play video games or a Netflix or cable subscription?
a. 47 percent of respondents answered “eSport streaming service subscription.”
b. 46 percent of respondents answered “Netflix or cable subscription.”
c. 7 percent of respondents answered “Not sure.”
8. (Asked only to those who answered “A” to Q2) Specifically, how much money do you estimate you spend or will spend annually on eSports by purchasing merchandise to support your favorite eSport gamers or teams?
a. 14 percent of eSport spenders indicated that they will not/do not spend money on eSport merchandise specifically.
b. Amongst those that will spend on merchandise, the average annual spend was $174.
c. Amongst those that will spend on merchandise, the median annual spend was $100.
9. (Asked only to those who answered “A” to Q2) Would you rather spend money on eSports merchandise to support your favorite eSport gamer/team or merchandise to support your favorite NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL or soccer team?
a. 51 percent of respondents answered “Merchandise for my favorite eSport gamer or team.”
b. 40 percent of respondents answered “Merchandise for my favorite sports team.”
c. 9 percent of respondents answered “Not sure.”
10. (Asked only to those who answered “A” to Q2) Specifically, how much money have you gambled or will gamble (excluding winnings/losings) annually on eSport tournaments or competitions?
a. 25 percent of eSport spenders indicated that they will not/do not spend money on eSport gambling specifically.
b. Amongst those that will spend on eSport gambling, the average annual spend was $607.
c. Amongst those that will spend on eSport gambling, the median annual spend was $200.
11. (Asked only to those who answered “A” to Q2) Would you rather gamble on an eSport tournament/competition or a major sporting event like the Super Bowl or Kentucky Derby?
a. 51 percent of respondents answered “An eSport tournament or competition.”
b. 39 percent of respondents answered “A major sporting event.”
c. 10 percent of respondents answered “Not sure.”
12. (Asked only to those who answered “A” to Q2) Have you ever made donations to your favorite eSport professional gamers that stream through a service like Twitch?
a. 50 percent of respondents answered “Yes.”
b. 47 percent of respondents answered “No.”
c. 3 percent of respondents answered “I’d rather not say.”
13. (Asked only to those who answered “A” to Q2 & “A” to Q12) Specifically, how much money have you donated or will donate annually to your favorite eSport gamers that stream through a service like Twitch?
a. Amongst those that will make donations to their favorite eSport gamers, the average annual donation amount was $465.
b. Amongst those that will make donations to their favorite eSport gamers, the median annual donation amount was $100.
14. Right now, what is more important to you: eSports or your favorite sports team or league?
a. 30 percent of respondents answered “eSports.”
b. 33 percent of respondents answered “Favorite sports team or league.”
c. 27 percent of respondents answered “Equally important.”
d. 10 percent of respondents answered “Not sure.”
15. Would you rather become a world-famous professional athlete, actor, or musician or a world-famous professional eSport gamer?
a. 44 percent of respondents answered “World famous professional athlete, actor, musician.”
b. 40 percent of respondents answered “World famous professional eSports gamer.”
c. 16 percent of respondents answered “Not sure.”
16. Do you think there will ever be a time when eSports becomes bigger in terms of revenue and popularity than the other major sport leagues like the NFL or the MLB?
a. 49 percent of respondents answered “Yes.”
b. 23 percent of respondents answered “No.”
c. 28 percent of respondents answered “Not sure.”
17. (Asked only to those who answered “A” to Q16) How long do you think it will take for eSports to surpass the major sports leagues in terms of revenue and popularity?
a. 72 percent of respondents answered “Within the next 10 years.”
b. 21 percent of respondents answered “11 to 30 years.”
c. 5 percent of respondents answered “31 to 50 years.”
d. 1 percent of respondents answered “51 to 70 years.”
e. 1 percent of respondents answered “over 70 years.”
18. (Asked only to those respondents with children) Knowing what you know now about the dangers of professional contact sports, would you encourage your child to focus on playing in eSport competitions over playing in more traditional sports?
a. 27 percent of applicable respondents answered “I would encourage them to pursue eSports.”
b. 20 percent of applicable respondents answered “I would still encourage them to pursue traditional sports.”
c. 48 percent of respondents answered “Whatever they would want to do.”
d. 5 percent of respondents answered “Not sure.”
19. (Asked only to those respondents with children) Would you pay to have your child take one-one-one video game lessons from a professional gamer if they asked?
a. 70 percent of respondents answered “Yes, if they wanted to do it.”
b. 14 percent of respondents answered “No, even if they wanted to do it.”
c. 16 percent of respondents answered “Not sure.”
20. (Asked only to those respondents with children & who answered “A” to Q19) If you could only afford one, would you rather pay for your child’s one-one-one video game lessons or something more traditional like sport or academic lessons?
a. 45 percent of respondents answered “One-on-one video game lessons.”
b. 44 percent of respondents answered “Sport or academic lessons.”
c. 11 percent of respondents answered “Not sure.”
21. Would you want an eSport based credit card that gave you reward points for all eSport-related purchases including event tickets, merchandise, Twitch subscriptions, etc.?
a. 35 percent of respondents answered “Yes, definitely.”
b. 25 percent of respondents answered “Most likely.”
c. 24 percent of respondents answered “Not sure.”
d. 9 percent of respondents answered “Most likely not.”
e. 9 percent of respondents answered “Definitely not.”
Observations & Analysis
eSports Spending Is High & Preferred Over Spending on Traditional Sports
62 percent of our respondents, all of whom were self-identified eSports fans, indicated that they have spent money on eSports on things such as Twitch subscriptions or donations, eSport event tickets, merchandise, or through gambling. One-third of respondents answered that they have yet to spend money on eSports, while five percent opted not to say.
Amongst the 62 percent of poll participants that answered the survey saying they have spent money on eSports, we found that the average annual amount spent on eSports by this cohort was a substantial $566. So, how exactly is that $566 divvied up?
Just like any traditional sport such as football or baseball, there are a plethora of ways to spend money on eSports. An enthusiast can get tickets to a major eSport tournament, purchase merchandise to represent their favorite eSport team, and sign up for different subscriptions on a streaming service like Twitch to watch the best gamers, who they can also donate to. Further, there is even an opportunity to gamble on eSport matches or tournaments.
In our survey, we dedicated a question to each of the different eSport spending mediums to uncover not only how many fans are spending on each category, but exactly how much they are dishing out on average.
As the above visual depicts, average annual spending is high across-the-board for each of the major eSport spending categories. Gambling on eSports, excluding winnings and losings, led the charge with an average annual spend of $607, while eSport merchandise had the lowest average annual expenditure of $174, which is still nothing to sneeze at.
Alan Santillian, an avid eSport consumer and content specialist from G2 Crowd, spoke to his eSport spending habits: “I have become more willing to spend hundreds of dollars on in-game cosmetics. During college, the most I would spend during a year would be close to $80 or less. Now the numbers often reach over $300 to $400 in cosmetics alone. Tickets to eSport events can vary, with small-scale events not costing more than $40 and larger scale tournaments like DotA2’s The International hitting over $200 for a finals ticket from personal experience attending these events.”
Santillian concluded, “Fans willingly donate to professional players on Twitch in order to have their messages read by the streamer. These donations range from a couple dollars to hundreds, and in rare cases, thousands of dollars. These donations come in every couple minutes during streams.”
It is important to remember that the averages for each spending category were calculated by only accounting for those respondents who indicated that they have spent or will spend on that respective category, rather than including the 62 percent of respondents that stated they have spent money on eSports.
In terms of the most prevalent eSport expenditures, merchandise was the most prevalent expense as only 14 percent of applicable poll participants indicated that they do not spend on eSport merchandise. This spending category was followed by paying for subscriptions through a streaming service like Twitch, something that 17 percent of respondents haven’t spent on, and then the 21 percent of consumers that have not spent on eSport event tickets. eSport gambling and Twitch donations to preferred eSport professionals were the least common expenditures, with 25 percent and 47 percent not spending on either of those categories respectively.
One of the major driving factors behind this survey was to pit eSports against traditional sports to gauge just how big of a threat eSports posed to the powerhouse sport leagues like the NFL, NBA, and MLB.
The first way we compared eSports to the major sport leagues was to discover if survey participants would rather spend their money on the aforementioned eSport spending categories or the same categories for leagues like the NFL, NHL, and MLB.
In every single hypothetical instance, the survey participants opted to spend their money on eSports instead of the traditional counterpart in that spending category. For example, 49 percent of respondents would rather use their money for eSport event tickets than on more traditional tickets such as an NFL game or music concert. Further, 47 percent of poll participants wanted to pay for subscriptions through a streaming service like Twitch to watch their favorite eSport gamers as opposed to the 46 percent that preferred paying for a traditional streaming service like Netflix.
While this is a highly-specific group of respondents, it goes to show just how stiff the competition is becoming between the eSport industry and the traditional sport leagues as the former surges in popularity.
This point is further proven by the results from the next set of survey questions.
Many Think eSports Will Surpass the Major Sport Leagues & That It Will Happen Sooner, Not Later
Continuing on this scenario where eSports competes toe-to-toe with the dominant professional sport leagues, we wanted to gauge if, or when, consumers think eSports will surpass leagues like the NFL in terms of popularity and revenue.
As it was mentioned earlier, total eSports revenue is projected to hit $1.25 billion in revenue by 2020, in addition to reaching a global audience of over 400 million in the same year. In comparison, the NFL did $14 billion in global revenue last year, while the NBA did $7.4 billion. In term of audience size, it is projected that baseball has a global reach of 500 million, while football and basketball pull in a worldwide fanbase of roughly 400 million.
On the topic of fandom, when poll participants were asked to identify which team or league was more important to them, their favorite eSports league or team or their favorite traditional sport team or league, 30 percent indicated it was their preferred eSports league or team that meant more to them, while 33 percent answered with the opposite. However, 27 percent of folks answered that both were of equal importance and 10 percent said they unsure, showing that there is room for major growth when it comes to the eSports fanbase.
Obviously, eSports has a long way before it catches the major professional sport leagues in terms of global revenue, but it appears that the professional video game industry is right there when it comes to its reach. Additionally, with the rapid ascension of eSports coupled with the seemingly-waning popularity of the NFL and MLB due to injury concerns and an aging fanbase respectively, it is not outrageous to think that eSports could catch these leagues at some point within the next couple of decades.
How did our respondents weigh in on this debate?
Nearly half of respondents, 49 percent, believe that eSports will eventually overtake the major professional sport leagues in terms of both revenue and popularity. Only 23 percent of poll participants do not believe this changing of the guard will ever happen, while 28 percent indicated that they are unsure.
Amongst those poll participants that do believe the eSports industry is bound to surpass leagues like the NFL and NBA, they are quite bullish in terms of when they believe eSports will trump its more traditional competitors. A whopping 72 percent of survey takers said they think eSports will overtake major sport leagues within the next years, while 21 percent believe it will take between 11 and 30 years.
Further, five percent see this change of guard taking place between the next 31 and 50 years, while one percent of respondents stated it would take between 51 and 70 years, and another one percent said it would take over 70 years.
It is quite interesting to see that amongst those that do think eSports will surpass leagues like the MLB and NFL, the vast majority see it happening rather quickly. Meanwhile, only a combined seven percent of this cohort think it is going to take place no sooner than 31 years. Clearly, eSport enthusiasts are extremely confident in the industry and its future.
Chris Brantner, the Founder of StreamerObserver, seemed to agree with the assessment of our respondents: “The fact is that eSports is exploding, while ratings for sports like the NFL are declining. So it’s not unreasonable to assume that eSports will eventually surpass traditional sports in popularity. Major TV networks obviously see something in it, as ESPN signed a TV deal this summer for rights to broadcast the Overwatch eSports league. And, TBS has been featuring ELeague, which boasts more than 9 million viewers, for some time now.”
Brantner also offered some insight on why eSports may have an advantage as we head into the future. He stated, “It’s [eSports] more accessible to the average young person. Not only that, but it’s easy to watch, as it got its start on streaming services like Twitch that kids use. Whereas traditional sports have been slow to adopt to those who never have and never will pay for cable and who often watch content on mobile devices rather than traditional televisions.”
Parents Strongly In Favor of eSports For Their Children
With public awareness on the dangers involved with contact sports, especially football, at an all-time high and the corresponding rise of eSports, we wanted to gauge how those respondents with children felt about their kids opting to focus on video games instead of more traditional sports like soccer, baseball, or football.
Amongst those poll participants that indicated they have children, we asked them if they would encourage their child to focus on playing in eSport competitions instead of participating in the standard sports knowing what they know now about the dangers of contact sports.
27 percent of survey takers indicated that they would push their children toward eSports, while 20 percent said they would still encourage their them to focus on traditional sports. Meanwhile, the plurality of respondents, 48 percent, simply said they would allow their children to do whatever they wanted to do, while five percent were undecided.
Despite most parents saying they would give their children free reign in deciding whether to pursue eSports or traditional sports like hockey, it was revealing to see that there were more parents who would encourage their children to go after video games instead of common sports. The next couple of questions played into this theme.
If a child is really serious about honing their skills in whatever it is they want to pursue, it is common practice for that child’s parents to fund training or tutoring for that ambition. We wanted to see if parents were willing to pay for one-one-one video game training lessons for their kids, which is an actual thing believe it or not.
The strong majority of parents that took part in this survey, 70 percent, said that they would indeed fund one-on-one video game lessons for their children if thats what they wanted to do. Only 14 percent would not spend their money on such lessons, while 16 percent were unsure if they would or not.
It is easy to understand why parents would pay for video game lessons for their children. For the most part, parents want to keep their kids happy and allow them to pursue their passions or hobbies. But what if a parent had a limited budget and could only afford one set of lessons for their children? Would they still fund a video game tutor for their kids if it meant they could then not get personal academic instruction or one-on-one lessons in a sport like tennis?
In a relatively surprising result and by the slimmest of margins, more parents would rather pay for their child’s one-on-one video game lessons over more traditional lessons like academic tutoring or athletic training if they were only able to afford one type of lesson. Specifically, 45 percent of parents that took part in this online survey said they would opt for video game lessons, while 44 percent selected the counter-choice., and 11 percent could not decide.
The CTO of Gunner Technology, Dary Merckens, provided commentary on the trend of parents pushing their children towards eSports: “Parents are absolutely going to push their kids into eSports, especially as the next generation of parents is one who grew up playing video games so there’s less of a stigma. Add into that the injury angle and parents will happily have their kids play eSports.”
”More and more parents will encourage eSport, including by paying for lessons, which, yes, I know tons of parents who have gotten lessons for their kids, some kids as young as 5,” finished Merckens.
eSports is still a relatively new phenomenon and yet it has already caught the eye of parents as something that could maybe be of equal value to academic or athletic performance. It is clear to see just how big the eSport industry can get in the coming generations if its impact is already being felt in 2018.
Methodology
All of the data that is found within this report derives from an online poll commissioned by LendEDU and conducted online by online polling company Pollfish. In total, 1,000 adult Americans ages 18 and up were surveyed for this particular poll. Respondents that fell within that age range were found via Pollfish’s age filtering feature. Respondents had to answer a screener question to be selected for this poll. The screener question was used to find respondents that both play video games and consider themselves to be fans of eSports. If respondents met the criteria, they were then selected at random from Pollfish’s online user panel of over 100 million. This survey was conducted over a two day span, starting on September 11, 2018 and ending on September 12, 2018. Respondents were asked to answer all questions truthfully and to the best of their abilities.
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