Esports video users spend more than 6 billion hours globally in 2016 (+19 percent) – driven by online viewing, according to IHS Markit.

Online viewing is accounting for more than 85 percent of time spent watching esports. China is the largest market for esports video, accounting for 57 percent of all viewing. The number of video streams delivered in China was 11.1 billion in 2016 against 2.7 billion video streams in North America, the second largest esports video market.

“The rapid growth of esports audiences has attracted some of the industry’s largest media and technology companies to the genre, with the likes of Amazon and MTG acquiring key assets,” said Ted Hall, research director for IHS Markit and the report’s lead author.
Some of these acquisitions are initiating shifts in esports business dynamics, with players such as China’s Tencent seeking to control assets across the value chain, and publishers moving into league operation.

Investment in esports will pay off for its big-name backers, as the genre expands both within its target demographic and outside it, with increasing exposure on linear TV set to bring in casual and new fans.

Esports advertising totaled about $280 million in 2016 and will become $1 billion by 2021 — primarily driven by video, influencer marketing and sponsorship.

“New entrants compete for audiences driven by objectives and business models that are orthogonal to traditional TV. Publishers deliver esports video because it helps their other commercial interests rather than having content monetization as their primary focus,” said Dan Cryan, senior director – IHS Markit.