E-sports are tournaments where teams of video game players compete against each other for prize money. Traditionally, fans have watched in person and online on streaming services such as Twitch and BAMTech. As e-sports have become more mainstream, fans are able to watch the tournaments on television channels such as TBS and ESPN also. An estimated 258 million people watched e-sports in 2017, an increase of 20% from 2016, according to SuperData.

Today’s market size shows total revenues earned by e-sports in 2016. Most of the revenues were earned from advertising, ticket sales, and merchandise. According to the source, e-sports is a valuable marketing tool for selling video games. Worldwide video game sales—mobile, computer, and console—in 2016 totaled $83 billion according to SuperData.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2016
Market size: $900 million
Source: “E-sports: Play Time,” The Economist, August 19-25, 2017, page 56; “eSports Market Report,” SuperData Research available online here.
Original source: SuperData
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