Video games have been popular since the late 1970s, but for the longest time, the gaming community operated as its own little niche, dwarfed by more traditional sports and other forms of entertainment.
With the advent of eSports, the same can no longer be said. Today, the eSports industry is in hot pursuit of leagues like the NFL and MLB when it comes to key metrics like popularity and revenue.
It is projected that eSports will reach $1.25 billion in revenue by 2020, in addition to having a global audience of over 400 million by that same year. The top eSport professionals, like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, are already making upwards of $500,000 per month. Major eSport events are selling out venues, like the Barclays Center, and Disney’s ESPN recently signed a deal with a major eSports league to provide live coverage of the gaming competition.
These recent developments sparked LendEDU’s interest in finding out more about just how fanatical these eSports enthusiasts really are and how much money they are spending on that fandom.
In our survey of 1,000 self-identified eSport fans, we came away with the following key findings:
- 62% of respondents indicated that they have spent money on eSports before, with the estimated average eSport expenditure coming in at $566 per year.
- 49% of respondents would rather spend money on eSport event tickets instead of sporting or concert tickets. Further, 51% of respondents would rather spend money on eSport merchandise instead of sporting merchandise.
- If they only could afford one, 45% of parents would rather pay for their child’s one-on-one video game lessons instead of sport or academic lessons.
