Esports or Electronic Sports are growing as the industry is growing. According to Newzoo, the global esports industry revenue will reach $1.1 billion in 2020, which is a 15.7 percent growth up from $950.6 million in 2019. Though, three-quarters of the revenue will come from sponsorships ($636.9 million) and media rights ($185.4 million). Predictions say that the mentioned number will rise to $1.2 billion in the next three years. All of this information comes from the company’s annual Global Esports Market Report.
China will stay as the largest esports market
Newzoo predicts that China will stay as the largest esports market. This year China will generate $385.1 million which is an 18 percent increase year on year. North America gets second place with $252.5 million while Western Europe follows in the third spot with $201.2 million. Last year, there were 885 major esports events that saw a rise from $54.7 million in 2018 to $56.3 in ticket revenue. in 2019, the total prize money was $167.4 million, up from $150.8 million from the year before. The Company also notes that Mobile esports “enjoyed a huge spike in the past year”. Emerging markets like Southeast Asia, India and Brazil were “the forefront of this growth”.
Additionally, Newzoo shared the most popular games on Twitch, Youtube, Mixer and other streaming platforms based on esports hours watched. League of Legends grabs the first spot with 348.8M hours watched followed by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with 215.0M. Dota 2 sits in the third spot followed by Blizzard’s Overwatch and Hearthstone. The main device competed on is PC for the top six games. Mobile comes in 7th place with Arena of Valor which got watched for 31.6M hours followed by PUBG Mobile with 27.9M hours watched.
Newzoo is tracking two esports revenue sources
In its most recent report, we knew that digital is expected to generate $21.5 million in 2020, up 60.9% year-over-year. Newzoo predicts that streaming will pull in $18.2 million which is up 33% although both of them remain small compared to media rights and sponsorship.
