The popularity of e-sports and gaming is growing rapidly. An increasing number of consumers are drawn to this type of content online. On an average day, almost 400 000 Swedes watch e-sports or gaming – making it considerably more popular than traditional sports online. This is reported in Mediavision’s latest analysis ”E-sports & gaming 2016/2017”.

In Sweden, watching videos of competitive and casual gaming has become very popular. Already in early fall 2016, Mediavision could report that e-sports for the first time ever attracted more daily online viewers than traditional sports. Now, Mediavision’s latest analysis shows that this development has not only continued – it has been enhanced. During the fourth quarter of 2016, e-sports and gaming drew, on average, 370 000 daily viewers. This corresponds to a 35 percent increase compared to the same period in 2015. Traditional sports reached considerably fewer, with 280 000 online viewers on an average day.

Viewing among young is especially popular. More than 15 percent of 15-24 year olds watch e-sports or gaming on an average day. Although the overall viewing increase this far in large parts can be attributed to the younger audience, Mediavision also sees a clear increase among older viewers.

The most popular channel is Youtube. The Google owned streaming giant has grown and reaches more e-sports and gaming viewers now compared to the same period in 2015.

A probable reason behind Youtube’s growth in the segment is the launch of Youtube Gaming in August 2015. This streaming platform has proven successful on the Swedish market. However, Youtube is not only big in the category of gaming, but also in e-sports, where Twitch is the other major platform. Aside from Youtube and Twitch, there are few services that can compete when it comes to reach. However, the competition over viewers will most likely increase in the future.

– This very rapid consumer growth has also led to an interesting development among market actors. Both Twitter and Facebook have invested heavily and shown that e-sports is a future market for them, as well. Major Nordic actors are also active, like MTG and Egmont. Consequently, Mediavision aims to follow the Nordic and Swedish e-sports and gaming markets very closely, says Torbjörn Axelsson, analyst at Mediavision.

Press release 2017-03-20

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