SuperData Predicts eSports Revenue to Grow over a Quarter by 2020

<p>Once a big product only in Asian markets&comma; the eSports sector has rapidly grown through the past years&comma; grabbing the attention of many mainstream investors&period; Even in the online gambling sector eSports are making a breakthrough as eSports betting becomes an increasingly popular trend in 2017 just as <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;live&period;netbet&period;co&period;uk&sol;live-roulette" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Live Roulette<&sol;a> games or licensed slot games once were&period; And according to a recent <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;superdataresearch&period;com&sol;market-data&sol;esports-market-report&sol;">SuperData report<&sol;a>&comma; the revenue generated by the eSports gaming sector and its viewership are only to continue growing within the next 3 years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-132624" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;20075006&sol;SuperData-Esports-Market-Brief-BagoGames-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"2468" height&equals;"1400" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>12&percnt; Yearly Increase in Viewership Predicted<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Game data and market research company SuperData recently posted a report outlining the growth potential of the eSports sector by 2020&period; In the 14-page free document dubbed &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Esports Courtside&colon; Playmakers of 2017”&comma; the research company predicts a revenue growth of 26&percnt; for the industry by 2020&comma; citing the interest of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;even more mainstream audience” as the fuel behind the growth&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-132620" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;20073419&sol;SuperData-Esports-Market-Brief-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"2462" height&equals;"1398" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In 2017 alone&comma; the global eSports market was valued at &dollar;1&period;5 billion&comma; according to the report&comma; with half of that revenue coming from investments made by &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;high-profile” brands and sports organizations&period; The revenue is projected to grow to &dollar;2&period;3 billion by 2020&comma; driven by an estimated 12&percnt; annual growth of viewership as well as an increasing number of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;third-party investments”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Out of the &dollar;1&period;5 billion revenue in 2017&comma; around 85&percnt; was generated by investments from third parties in advertisements and sponsorship deals&period; Tickets and merchandise sales accounted only for 5&percnt; of the total revenue or the same percentage as revenue driven by amateur tournaments and eSports betting&period; Prize pools offered in tournaments&comma; on the other hand&comma; had a slightly bigger contribution of 6&percnt;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>LoL and Twitch Lead the Way<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When it comes to viewership&comma; the report outlines that <em>League of Legends<&sol;em> still reigns superior over <em>Dota 2<&sol;em>&period; <em>League of Legends<&sol;em>&comma; alongside the Overwatch League&comma; is projected by the report to grow its revenue from selling tickets&comma; merchandise&comma; advertisements&comma; and sponsorships even further in the upcoming years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-132622" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;20074115&sol;SuperData-Esports-Market-Brief-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"2466" height&equals;"1396" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But a formal strategy isn’t the only road to success&comma; the report suggests&comma; as shown by PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds &lpar;PUBG&rpar;&comma; whose &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;unprecedented viewership” has grown to become 20 times higher than its actual player base&period; Only 7 months after its April release PUBG had surpassed 200 million unique viewers&period; Its October Twitch numbers show that the game is even getting close to League of Legends&&num;8217&semi; Twitch&comma; which attracted 286 million unique viewers during the same month&comma; the biggest audience in a single game&period; The report predicts that PUGB is &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;on its way to becoming the first Battle Royale eSport”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-132625" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;20080543&sol;fight-between-twitch-and-youtube-bagogames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The report also covers the fight between Twitch and YouTube for the dominance over eSports entertainment&period; While 67&percnt; of viewers were found to use both services&comma; around 20&percnt; were found to only use Twitch for their eSports entertainment and only 11&percnt; were found to be using YouTube exclusively&period; Twitch was also the predominant channel for live streams in the US while YouTube was used mostly for &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;more curated content”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;