Nielsen released a new report dubbed The Esports Playbook with a deck of stats breaking down the industry and its fans. The report states that esports fans follow an average of 5.7 different games and 2.6 genres, and noted that “Esports fans are watching TV (for clarity, any TV rather than esports-specific content) – but they are also doing a lot of other things, including, unsurprisingly, playing video games. In fact, the average esports fan spends nearly double the time playing video games than watching TV on a TV screen.” The company noted the quick rise in programming hours dedicated to watching esports on linear channels, led by Disney XS with 13 telecasts during the examination period, for 1015 minutes of coverage. TBS had carried seven telecasts in that span, to hit 1135 minutes with other networks measured that included the ESPN channels, NFL Network and the CW.

Diving deeper, the company broke out the growth of sponsorships in the space, noting that the number of esports sponsorships has hit over 600 since the start of 2016, and that 50-60% of fans have favorable responses towards brand involvement in tournaments, streams or esports events. Further data showed that in events tracked through Q2 2017, 42% of esports brand sponsors were non-endemic with energy drinks, fast food, headsets, PC tech, PC hardware, gaming PCs, gaming software, esports news and gaming chairs representing the top categories in terms of brands tracked. Click here to download the full report.

“Brands entering the esports space, in whatever capacity, need to have done their due diligence and homework, to understand not only their own objectives but also the audience, their habits and their preferences,” says Nicole Pike, Nielsen Esports’ Global Research and Product Lead. “Understanding the complexities and intricacies of the esports marketplace is another major challenge – there are a multitude of teams, tournaments, titles, players and commercial and broadcast models in play, as the sector develops and matures. We are already seeing examples of brands making the most of the opportunity and generating significant returns on their investments in esports.”