Esports and Streaming: The future of Esports Market

As of today, sponsorship deals account for 40% percent of esports revenue income, and are a big factor in its growth. However, according to Goldman Sachs’ 2018 report on esports, this tendency is about to give way to media and broadcasting rights.

The reason might be a bit obvious when looking at the numbers: Twitch alone accounts for 1.8% of total internet traffic and 43% of all live-video streaming traffic, and YouTube Gaming’s monthly active users increased right over 36% during 2018.

A practical example: For ‘League of Legends’, there was a little over 24 million hours of content watched, and a total of 438.342 hours streamed over the past seven days on Twitch. ‘Fortnite' had over 1.8 million hours of content generated, and a total of 22.8 million hours watched.

Although some of this content is sponsored by game making companies, event organizers and such, it is obvious that we’re talking about a huge market with great untapped potential.

Another thing to take into consideration is engagement. First person interaction with streamers is probably the most appealing side of the show for a lot of users, who get to meet their idols and learn the best plays from the best players.

Game publishers, creators, content generators and basically everyone involved is aware of these advantages, which might explain why all predictions aim at this direction.

A clear sign would be the rising involvement of traditional media over the past couple of years, with the example of ESPN securing their place on the esports scene by acquiring media rights for the Overwatch League in 2018.

Traditional media has a lot of catching up to do: at the moment, Twitch is probably the biggest player involved. They have important deals for NBA 2K and ‘Overwatch’ streaming, and have recently renewed their deal with tournament organizer DreamHack.

Following closely, there are many streaming service rising in popularity along with esports: Steam TV is directly linked to the gaming platform —and Dota 2—, and Mixer is offering a low latency, smoothing interactions between streamers and their audiences.

More recently, Facebook Gaming signed an exclusivity deal for broadcasting rights with ESL Pro Leagues and ESL One Series; and Caffeine —also partnered with ESL— had a 24/7 stream during the Intel Extreme Masters Season 12 in Katowice, Poland.

Even if we don’t account for Chinese giants like Huya and Douyu TV, it’s quite clear that the streaming business is blooming… but there is still a lot of room to grow!

Content rights are now on the spotlight, as ownership of content might shift with market tendencies. This, and the possibility of esports incorporating pay-per-view models were a couple of the hottest topics of conversation during 2018.

Of course, there are deals being made every minute while these discussions take place, and the dust settles. The best way to keep up with all the trends is through BizzTech’s online matchmaking events!

Check out the upcoming eSPORTS MEDIA. SPONSOR. BUSINESS. & TECH. event on April 9th and 10th and don’t miss the chance to engage in doing business with the all sort of dealmakers of this industry!

Mariana J. Suárez Jesús, content writer at BizzTech