New data shows how many competitive gaming fans there are in the UK – with a breakdown by age and gender.
Newzoo has told eSports News UK there are 36.6 million gamers here, of which 3.1 million are eSports enthusiasts. That equates to about 8.5% of gamers in the UK – or almost 5% of the UK’s population (64.5 million).
‘eSports enthusiasts’ are classed as consumers who watch eSports more than once a month and/or participate in (amateur) eSports leagues.
A further 3.4 million people watch eSports occasionally (less than once a month).
Overall that equates to 6.5 million people in the UK who either watch eSports casually or more regularly – around 10% of the UK population.
So, one in ten Brits follow eSports overall.
Of the 3.1 million eSports enthusiasts in the UK, Newzoo says that 69% are male and 31% are female. This means there are almost one million female eSports viewers in the UK.
The most popular demographic is males aged between 21 and 35 years old.
In terms of the global numbers, there are 131 million eSports enthusiasts worldwide and 125 million occasional viewers. This is set to rise to 180 million and 165 million respectively by 2019.
You can see a full UK gender and age breakdown in the chart below:
Newzoo estimates that one billion people will be aware of eSports by the end of this year. Newzoo’s latest eSports market report can be found here.
Image source: Riot Flickr, League of Legends World Championship 2015 crowd shot taken at Wembley SSE Arena
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
