Is the Super Bowl of eSports LeBron streaming Fortnite to his fans?

2018 data shows that about 90% of game viewership is not eSports viewership and 3/4 of esports revenues are from brands. Brands pay more for big gender diverse audiences.

Where is all the money in esports in 2019?

More than 3/4 of all esports revenue in 2018 was as a result of engaging audiences paid ultimately by brands. The bigger the audience the more brands will pay for engaging that audience.

Breaking it down, about 11% of all of 2018 Q1 game viewership was esports viewership.

Table 1. Twitch and Youtube Gaming showing vast majority of esports viewership not live events - this is not like NFL

Esports at about 11% of all Gaming Viewership

According to NewZoo, 8.2% and 11.2% of esports viewership by YouTube Gaming (32m hours) and Twitch (228m) respectively are esports hours (Table 1). Twitch’s 2018 Q1 esports viewership share of 11.2% is a decrease from 2015 Twitch esports viewership share of 21.3% esports to, what Twitch called in 2015, consumer hours of viewership. That means for brands that want to reach audiences they are missing around 90% of viewing audience hours by focusing only on big live events. It also means investors are missing on potentially 90% of the revenues if only focused on live events and the games most often featured at these live events.

In 2019 will esports viewership gain on game viewership? Maybe hit 15% of viewership, or maybe fall to 8%? Advertisers pay more for big live events that can attract eyeballs during a specific broadcast period (say a 3 hour broadcast). Will there be more big live events with live viewership to make esports viewership more popular in 2019?

At the same time there are more games, more ways to watch, more celebrities with large social media followings getting into esports. A focus on casual games, gender diversity, casual tournaments, storytelling, and big celebrity could easily attract the dollars and viewership to grow game viewership. Sports broadcast history tells us that big live pro events will attract more viewership than Lebron playing basketball with his son in the front yard. Will esports follow this history?

Most importantly, where will non-endemic brands put their advertising and sponsorship dollars? What games? What share to live events? What share to streaming? What websites and social media accounts? Will non-endemic brands put dollars into the esports Super Bowls or into Lebron playing NBA2K with his family? Athletic-wear brand Champion is working with the #1 eSports social media account FazeClan in a current campaign. Champion has done deals with Fnatic and OpTic too.

Ricchy Ray Charles wears FaZe Clan's new athletic apparel brand partnership with Champion. The new line with Champion premiered on Faze Clan Website April 16, 2019 at 9 AM PST.

Big Audience and Broad Demo with Storytelling and Celebrity

In 2019, focusing on sponsorship, advertising, and media rights means to focus on big audiences, broad demographics, and the types of games and content that attracts the biggest audiences. Ellen and Kim Kardashian streaming Candy Crush, Pokemon Go, or Big Shot will reach big audiences that brands desire. Faze wearing Champion brand on Instagram reach bigger online audiences than the record setting esports event in 2018. Thomas ‘FaZe Temperrr’ Oliveira appears in pre-release video.

During next week's Egaming and Esports event in Toronto, ePlay will breakdown the latest numbers comparing esports to NFL Super Bowl audiences in 2019.