Newzoo is one of the research firms that knows its onions when it comes to games and esports, so its latest predictions for the latter sector are useful reading.
It reckons that the global audience for professional, competitive gaming will grow by 8.7% this year to 532 million people, including just over 261 million ‘enthusiasts’ (who watch more than once a month) and 271 million ‘occasional’ viewers.
Newzoo also predicts that the esports industry will be worth nearly $1.38bn this year, with China accounting for nearly a third of those revenues.
There’s another related report from the company covering livestreaming gaming – a category which (we think) includes some esports, but is more about watching people stream gameplay on platforms like Twitch who aren’t pro gamers themselves.
Anyway, Newzoo thinks that the audience for this will grow by 13.8% in 2022 to 921.2 million people. Emerging regions like Latin America and MENA are growing fast, but China is still the biggest market for this too.
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