Esports numbers in terms of audience are huge. Our Global Esports Market Report shows that 191 million consumers will watch esports frequently in 2017, with another 194 million tuning in occasionally. Gamer numbers are even higher at 2.2 billion worldwide across all platforms. But game enthusiasts who play and/or watch esports have strong preferences for specific games. For brands, media, investors, and other businesses interested in entering esports, understanding the engagement of individual games in terms of players and viewers is crucial. This is one of the most common reasons for our clients to subscribe to our services.

For this post, we focused on three high-level but essential questions: How do some of the biggest esports franchises compare in terms of players and viewers? How big is the overlap between gamers and viewers? What is the overlap between franchises in terms of reach?

The analysis focuses mainly on PC games League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), and Dota 2 but also includes a comparison with multi-platform games Overwatch and Hearthstone. The figures are aggregated across 10 Western countries: U.S., Canada, Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden.

ESPORTS DRIVES FRANCHISE (RE-)ENGAGEMENT AND LOYALTY

Over the last 20 years, gaming has rapidly evolved into a favorite pastime of consumers and the single-most favorite pastime for digital natives or young Millennials. While publishers often incentivize players to spend significant time in-game, the energy that players can pour into often intense and competitive gaming sessions is limited.

Video content around competitive games, mostly in the form of esports, has created a way to alternate intense ‘lean-forward’ gaming sessions with a more relaxed ‘lean-back’ viewing experience, all the while keeping fans engaged with their favorite franchises. As a result, the number of viewers of a game franchise can exceed the number of active players alone. Especially for long-established competitive franchises with a well-developed esports scene, a significant share of their fanbase has never played, or no longer plays, the game but still views esports; 26% of League of Legends’ fans and 30% of CS:GO’s are viewers only. Players are defined as those who have played a title in the past three months.

Due to lean-back consumption of esports content and fan engagement with teams and players, esports creates a sticky layer around franchises that keeps fans engaged after they stop playing temporarily or for good, with the goal of re-engaging fans with the game. Even if there is no re-engagement, the size of this group of consumers justifies the implementation of advertising-driven business models by publishers and organizers.

FRANCHISE REACH DIFFERS GREATLY PER REGION

On a global level, League of Legends, CS:GO, and Dota 2 have the most developed and watched esports scenes. North America and Western Europe are dominated by League of Legends and CS:GO, which have a reach of 11.8% and 9.4%, respectively, among all mobile, PC, or console gamers and/or viewers across 10 key countries. Impressively, Overwatch comes in third place in terms of total reach in North America and Western Europe but is mostly driven by its large player base on console as well as PC. Still, a sizeable group of people only view Overwatch. Overwatch’s esports potential is highly anticipated, with 19 million views on the official Overwatch League announcement video on YouTube, and IEM Gyeonggi’s Overwatch tournament finals attracting close to 100,000 peak concurrent viewers on Twitch. Additionally, the city-based franchise approach presented by Activision/Blizzard seems to have materialized, as it is rumored that the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins are among the first traditional sports teams to claim a spot in the Overwatch League.

Dota 2’s relatively low reach of players and/or viewers in North America and Western Europe is not surprising. A significant share of the fanbase (both players and viewers) originate from either Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia. In several countries, including Russia and the Philippines, Dota 2 has far more players than League of Legends. This is reflected in the pro-scene, where many of the top Dota 2 tournaments (with The International as the notable exception) are hosted in Eastern European and Southeast Asian countries, and many teams and pro players originate from the same region.

ESPORTS CONTENT REACHES CONSUMERS THAT DO NOT PLAY

Looking at the combined fanbase of the top three global esports franchises (League of Legends, CS:GO, and Dota 2), we see that 23% of the fanbase (both players and viewers) in the 10 Western countries watch esports content of these games but do not play the games. This means that 42% of these esports viewers don’t play the game they watch. For these franchises, players have often moved on to other games or spend their time elsewhere, while staying invested in the professional competitive gaming scene. Esports gives lapsed game enthusiasts an outlet to still enjoy the entertainment provided by games without having to develop or keep up with the skills required to play.

Especially for CS:GO, there is a large group of fans who only watch esports of the game. This makes sense, as the title is an incredibly competitive, intense, and reflex-based game. Additionally, CS:GO is easy to understand for people who do no play or have not played for a long time, attracting players from other shooter games with less developed esports scenes.

FRANCHISES HAVE THEIR OWN PLAYER AND VIEWERSHIP BASE

Looking at the combined fanbase of the top three global esports franchises, we see that 70% of fans only watch one of these franchises, with League of Legends having the largest share of viewers that do not watch the other titles: 60% for League of Legends alone or 37% of all viewers combined, as seen below. Almost half, 49%, of CS:GO viewers only follow CS:GO as an esport. A relatively low share of 30% of Dota2 viewers watches only Dota2 esports content. Spread across all franchises, Dota 2 viewers are the most avid esports fans of all; 35% spend more than 6 hours a week watching professional competitive gaming across all franchises compared to, for instance, 27% for League of Legends. Across the franchises, League of Legends and CS:GO show the most overlap with 13%. It seems that CS:GO fans prefer to watch League of Legends to Dota 2, with the former MOBA easier to learn and understand.

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