US-based esports organisation Cloud9 are the most-followed esports organisation in the UK, according to a report.
Nielsen published a report on esports this month, and buried within is some data on the UK market, as well as France, Germany and the US.
Cloud9 are apparently the most popular team in the UK, followed by London-based Fnatic and Optic Gaming.
“Cloud9, an American organization that fields teams across multiple esports tournaments and titles, has the broadest claimed following across the four markets, coming out on top in the UK and USA, second behind Fnatic in Germany and behind just Fnatic and Spanish-founded G2 Esports in France,” Nielsen said in a statement.
You can see the full lists below:
Earlier this year, Cloud9 claimed the London Overwatch League spot, much to Fnatic’s disdain. Prior to that, Cloud9 won the Vainglory Unified Championship which took place in London’s O2 Arena.
Other UK data in the report included some info on esports fans’ viewing habits. Esports fans in the UK spend less time viewing TV and more time playing games than those in the US, France and Germany, with the average fan spending 3.8 hours a week watching TV and 8.3 hours playing games.
They’re also apparently less interested in following esports sponsors – just 15% said they were interested in following sponsors, compared to 25% in the US, 17% in France and 16% in Germany.
“Cloud9, an American organisation that fields teams across multiple esports tournaments and titles, has the broadest claimed following across the four markets [in our report], coming out on top in the UK and USA.”
Unsurprisingly, CSGO is the most popular esports game in the UK, followed by League of Legends. In terms of console games, Call of Duty and FIFA are king.
The research surveyed 1,000 esports fans aged 13 to 40 years old in each of the four markets it focused on.
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.
