Esports Industry Stats & Growth [2023]

How many people watch Esports?

Esports is watched by both occasional and sports enthusiasts. A YoY increase of 12.3% occurred between 2018 and 2019. There were 200.8 million casual viewers in 2019, and 197 million eSports enthusiasts, making it a combined audience of 397.8 million.

The year 2020 showed a 9.6% YoY growth with 220.5 million causal viewers and 215.4 million enthusiasts.

However,  2021 showed a remarkable 12.4% YoY growth with 249.5 million causal viewers and 240 million enthusiasts.

The esports audience growth is expected to cross half a billion viewership mark with a total of 532.2 million viewers in the year 2022 i.e.  270.9 million casual viewers and 261.2 million Esports enthusiasts.

Considering the CAGR growth the Esports viewers are expected to cross the 640 million viewers mark in 2025

Source: Newzoo.com

People of the Asia Pacific region contribute the most to the Esports Views

61.3% of Esports views are from the Asia Pacific region. Europe contributes to 12.09% of the views and North america accounts for 8.57% of the views.

Esports is also growing in other parts of the world and the other regions contribute to 18.04% of the viewership.

How is Esports in terms of revenue growth ?

The Esports market is rapidly increasing in terms of market growth. The Esports revenue was $957.5 million in the year 2019. However, due to the pandemic, Esports was expected to notice a slight fall in revenue but instead, Esports reported revenue of $996 million for the year 2020.

The year 2021 and 2022 also showed a favorable growth. The Esports reported revenue growth of $1,136.5 million in 2021. The industry revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.8 % with an estimated prediction of $1,384 million in 2022.

Newzoo has also predicted that the Esports revenue will reach $1866.2 million in 2025 by taking into account an annual CAGR growth of 13.4% from 2020 – 2025
Source: Newzoo.com, Statista

Esports revenue growth by region

The Asia pacific region contributes the most to the Esports revenue i.e $590.2 million. Esports is pretty popular in North America and the European regions of the world that contributes to $349.7 million and $345.3 million in revenue respectively. Other region of the world contribute to $98.8 million in revenue.

Sponsorships play a large role in revenue Streams

The latest estimates of eSports revenue streams for 2022 is $1384 million globally. Majority of the revenue is contributed by Sponsorships and Media rights.

The distribution of revenue from different streams is as follows:

Revenue SegmentsRevenue ( in millions) (Estimated)
Sponsorships $ 837.3
Media Rights$ 207.8
Publisher Fees$ 130.7
Tickets and Merchandise$ 107.9
Digital$ 53.9
Live Streaming$ 46.3

Audience Growth Stats

Most live streaming of games are held on twitch and Youtube by professional players. The live streaming audience in 2019 was 593.2 million and it grew by 11.7% in 2020 i.e. 662.7 million.

The effects of pandemic were seen in 2021 when people were practicing social distancing and spending more time at home on their computer screens. The audience grew to 809.6 million in 2021 due to this.

The audience will continue to grow at 13.8% YoY and it is estimated to reach 921.2 million in 2022 globally.

By 2025, newzoo believes that the live streaming audience will be 1.4 Billion with an estimated CAGR growth of 16.3%

Live streaming is most popular in Asia – pacific region

RegionAudience Count
Asia – Pacific442.5 million
Europe172.8 million
North America103.7 million
Other Regions202.3 million

Source : Newzoo

Esports Games and Teams Stats

TSM is the most valuable Esports Team with $540 million

eSports is majorly dominated by team based games and these teams contribute a lot to eSports by live streaming their games and engaging the audience with their unique playing style. Some of the most valueable teams of 2022 are listed below:

TSM

  • Value: $540 million
  • Estimated Revenue: $56 million
  • Owner: Andy Dinh

100 Thieves

  • Value: $460 million
  • Estimated Revenue: $42 million
  • Owners: Matthew Haag, Drake, Scooter Braun, Dan Gilbert

Team Liquid

  • Value: $440 million
  • Estimated Revenue: $ 56 million
  • Owners: aXiomatic Gaming, Victor Goossens, Steve Arhancet

FaZe Clan

  • Value: 400 million
  • Estimated Revenue: $53 million
  • Owners: Lee Trink, Richard Bengston, Thomas Oliveira ,Yousef Abdelfattah ,

Cloud9

  • Value: $460 million
  • Estimated Revenue: $ 34 million
  • Owners: Jack and Paullie Etienne

Source: Forbes, Growjo.com

Most Popular Esports games by money rewarded

All major eSports players are a fan of Dota 2 and it contributes to majority of their earnings. There are other games like CS:GO, Fortnite, League of Legends and Area of Valor that are liked by many players.

GamesPrize MoneyTournament Held
Dota 2289.16 million1666 Tournaments
CS:GO138.11 million6308 Tournaments
Fortnite129.27 million800 Tournaments
League of Legends93.36 million2707 Tournaments
Area Of Valor53.41 million110 Tournaments

Source : Esports

Esports Event and Players Stats

The Espsorts industry has exploded over the past few years. In 2021, The Free Fire Tournament that was held in singapore became the most popular Esports tournament that gained 5.41 million peak viewers.

League of Legends was the 2nd most popular tournament with 3.99 million views held in 2019. 

Source :Statista

Most Popular Esports Events

The Esports events are extremely popular worldwide. Every professional gamer competes in these events to win the prize money. There are a lot of sports events held globally however, we have listed some of the most renowned events that every gamer should be aware of.

EventDateLocation
2022 Master’s TourAugust 12 – August 15, 2022 October 7 – October 9, 2022Online
RLCS: Rocket League World ChampionshipsAugust 4 – August 14, 2022online
LCS 2022 ChampionshipsSeptember 10 – September 11, 2022United Center in Chicago, Illinois
2022 Asian GamesSeptember 23 – October 8, 2023Hangzhou, China
League of Legends World Championship 2022September 29 to Nov 5, 2022Mexico City, New York City, Toronto, and San Francisco
2022 ESL Pro League Season 15June 14, 2022 – October 2, 2022Online
2022 The International 11Oct 15 – October 30, 2022Singapore
2022 Asia Pacific Predator LeagueNov 11- Nov 13, 2022 Japan
Dreamhack 2022: Atlanta18 – 20 November, 2022Atlanta, Georgia
Dreamhack Winter 202224 – 27 November, 2022Elmia, Jönköping, Sweden

Source : Influencermarketinghub

Sasha Hostyn commonly known as Scarlett holds the title of Top Earning Female Esports player with a total of around $430,000. She is a big fan of Starcraft II game that contributed to majority of her earning.

XIao Meng holds the 2nd position by playing Hearstone and earning a total of $241,510.

Johan Sundstein is the Top Earning Male Esports player with a total of $7.18 million. He is a Dota 2 game player that contributes to majority of his earning

Currently, six Esport players have a winning of more than $5 million. And 125 players have crosses the $1 million mark.

Source : eSports

9 Fun Facts about eSports

  • 74% of the eSports enthusiasts have a full time job.
  • 37% of occasional viewers have high household income.
  • Sponsorships can contribute to nearly 60% of the esports revenue in 2022.
  • China is expected to contribute to nearly 1/3rd of the worldwide esports revenue in 2022. Currently, esports is expected to generate $1.38 billion in revenue.
  • Twitch is the most popular live streaming platform when it comes to gaming with almost 20 billion hours of live streaming. YouTube comes 2nd with 4.7 billion hours of live streaming.
  • The US is expected to gain the Top esports market share by the end of 2023.
  • Valorant is the most streamed game on Twitch with 4.04 million views in July 2022.
  • The first esports event was held 50 years ago.
  • 80% of the americans are not even interested in esports.
Sanjay Gill
Sanjay Gill

I love playing games, and I like to write content on tech, gaming, and finance. You might catch me playing or streaming games on Youtube during my free time.