Four in ten Brits (37%) are familiar with esports, but just 6% of them are engaged with these competitions in some way.
The majority of those who engage with esports are casual fans (61%) with just 5% saying they are passionately interested. That’s according to new research by YouGov.
The data comes from YouGov’s Gaming and Esports: The Next Generation white paper, which provides an analysis of the global video games and esports landscape across 24 markets.
It’s similar to research YouGov produced three years back, where it found that 35% of British adults (18.3 million people) are aware of esports, just 7% (3.6m) have actually watched it.
The 2020 report also found that more than four in ten UK gamers say they’ve been gaming more during the COVID-19 outbreak (43%), while a further four in ten have been gaming about the same (42%) and 8% say they’re playing less.
Additionally, a quarter of gamers say that once the pandemic is over, gaming will be “stronger and more relevant than ever before” (24%).
The leading markets for console gamers as a proportion of the population are Hong Kong (32%), Spain (29%), the US (28%), the UK (28%), and Australia (27%).
UK gamers make up over two thirds of the population (67%). Six in ten of this group say they play mobile games (52%), a quarter PC games (25%) and three in ten console games (28%).
Finally, the report found that Twitch awareness among UK gamers is at 37%, while a quarter are aware of YouTube Gaming (25%) and one in six are aware of Facebook Gaming (16%).
Nicole Pike, global sector head of esports & gaming at YouGov, said: “This whitepaper offers a foundational understanding of gamers – which, given the number of countries, platforms, titles, streaming sites, and competitions at this audience’s fingertips is far from basic in today’s gaming landscape.
“Beyond our extensive industry expertise, we also explore key trends that will drive continued growth for gaming into 2021, all rooted in data from consumers around the world.”
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.
