eSports is emerging as a serious new mass entertainment medium for the 21st century. 

But what are eSports?  That may sound like an odd question to ask if you are close to the world of gaming, but the fact is that some people don’t know that much about it. 

Indeed, 10% of UK gamers in 2021 did not even know if they had ever watched an eSports event or not.

For the uninitiated eSports are not, as you might think, something to do with a Peloton membership.  eSports are all about playing computer games competitively in a tournament. 

Not only do these events attract large numbers of competitors, but they also attract significant online audiences.  The fact is that millions of people around the world enjoy watching other people play in gaming competitions.

A growing sport

eSports has grown enormously in popularity in recent years.  Major events now claim global audiences in the millions.   This has attracted significant advertising and sponsorship revenues from big brands like Red Bull, Coca-Cola and Intel. 

But they have only scratched the surface in terms of potential sponsorship and advertising revenues.  Many brands outside the industry still simply don’t yet know enough to decide whether to get involved.

So, just how popular are eSports today?

Big numbers

There is no doubt that some events are posting big numbers when it comes to audience sizes.  Global estimates claim that as many as 435 million people watched at least one eSports event in 2020.  Big tournaments like the League of Legends World Championship are now able to generate a peak viewing audience of around 4 million.

Of course, 4 million is still less than the peak audiences generated by many of the world’s biggest televised sporting events.  BBC1’s peak audience for Wimbledon reached 9.6 million in 2019.

However, far more important than the current audience size is the rate of growth.  Audiences have grown from 160 million in 2016 to 435m by 2020.  At that rate the biggest of these events could well be matching the viewing figures of Wimbledon soon.  The future looks a very exciting prospect.

But beyond the big numbers, what about some specifics?  Who watches eSports?

Audience specifics

What do we know about the people who watch eSport?  Is (for example) an audience of 2 million, an audience of kids or adults?  Are they Americans, Russians, British or Chinese?

It might be tempting to assume that most viewers are likely to be kids and teenagers.  However, adults make up over half of the global audience. 

It is important to remember that eSports is still a relatively young and fast-growing medium.  There are many people today who only watch occasionally that may well become regular viewers in future.   We are talking about a global audience that has nearly trebled in size in the space of just four years after all.

So, let’s look at this emerging audience in more detail by focusing specifically on the UK.  Who watches eSports in the UK today?  How might this change in future?

The UK Audience for eSports

Nearly 9% of all UK adults now say that they often watch eSports.  This equates to 3.6 million UK adults. 

However, a further 24% say that they have watched eSports at least occasionally (a further 9.8 million).  The potential UK audience is therefore significantly larger than currently.

In terms of what kind of eSports people like to watch, the most frequently mentioned was FIFA (which appeals to 49% of UK viewers).  The second most popular watch was Fortnite (35%).

However, when it comes to the third most popular watch, it’s too close to call.  Games like Rocket League, Call of Duty, Streetfighter and League of Legends cluster close together with around 15%-20% of viewers citing such games as eSports favourites.

UK Audience Demographics

The majority of UK viewers are male but eSports are attracting a significant female audience as well (one in three).

In terms of age profile, eSports are attracting a younger audience.  55% of the UK adult audience is under the age of 35. Although, at the other end of the spectrum, interest clearly falls away significant amongst the over 45’s.

This highlights one of the key strengths of eSports as a new medium.  More traditional media such as the major terrestrial TV channels struggle to engage with the under 35s in the same way.  2019 Ofcom figures show that, of the five main terrestrial TV channels, only around 17% of the audience was under 35.

The Future of eSports

eSports will provide advertisers with an increasingly attractive way to reach the under 35s in future.

However, eSports is still in its infancy in many ways.  The biggest commercial terrestrial TV channel (ITV) was reaching 54% of the UK population every week in 2018.  Contrast that with the current 9% of UK adults who say that they often watch eSports. 

There is clearly a long way to go before this new medium matches its more traditional rivals in terms of overall reach but the future potential is immense. 

If all those people who’ve only watched occasionally become regular viewers in the next few years, eSports could reach 33% of the UK adult population.

For further information about the UK gaming market

The statistics quoted in this article come from our UK Gaming Market Report of 2021. 

This report provides invaluable insight into current trends in the UK gaming market, covering detailed gamer demographics, genre preferences, device preferences, trends in Cloud, eSports audiences, VR, gamer consumer profiles, aspirations for the future and more. 

You can find out more about this report on our website.  

If you wish to follow our weekly blog you can view all out past articles on our website here.

If you have any specific questions about our services, please contact us.

Sources

Playbook – UK Gaming Market Report 2021, Synchronix Research

eSports Trade Association

Ofcom

SportsPro Media

Wimbledon

In our last blog we talked about how the gaming community has evolved and diversified over the years.  Once upon a time it may have been reasonable to think of ‘gamers’ as a homogenous group.  But as different genres and types of gaming experiences have developed, so too has a diverse mix of very different gaming audiences.

Different gaming audiences

Fans of one genre often represent a very different mix of people from the gamers who favour a different genre. 

This is obvious if you think about it.  But the devil (or rather the insight) lies in the detail.  Our new gamer survey explores exactly how audiences differ for different genres of games.  Let’s consider a couple of examples:

First person shooter games have been with us for years.  Early classics like Doom and Halo have become so huge that they have spawned film adaptations and a stream of international merchandising.

Contrast this with casual gaming – a genre that has really hit the big time largely since the millennia.  Some of these games have also made a big impact on modern culture.  Just think how influential games like Angry Birds or Candy Crush were at the height of their popularity.

Some gamers – many in fact – enjoy playing both casual games and shooters.  However, these two genres nevertheless attract a very different profile of fans overall.  Different in terms of the kind of people they are, how they like to play and even in terms of their consumer behaviour outside of gaming.

Shooters vs casual gaming

To illustrate this, let’s compare fans for casual gaming with those of shooters in the UK.

Both genres are popular. More than one in five adults have played a shooter in the past year and more than one third have played a casual game.

However, the typical casual gamer is a woman who usually plays on a Smartphone. She buys her games from App Store or Google Play. 

The typical shooter fan is male, plays on consoles and gets his games from Amazon, PlayStation Store or Game (a major games retailer in the UK market).

Both genres also hit different sweet spots in terms of player age.

Shooters appeal to a younger audience; 75% of players are under 45.  For shooters the young age demographics are important and the under 25s form a significant proportion of players.

Casual gaming is very different, attracting an older fan base.  Most casual gaming fans (67%) are aged between 25 and 54; the under 25s being significantly less important for the success of these games.  

Different buyer behaviour

But the differences do not end there.

Casual gamers are a lot less likely to pre-order new games (just 14% say they’d usually pre-order a game they like the look of, compared to 24% of shooter fans). 

Casual gamers are less likely to buy new games in general (just 60% bought a new game last year compared to 90% of shooter fans). 

However, casual gamers are more likely to acquire free-to-play games (39% acquired 6+ new free games last year vs. 33% of shooter fans).

Both types of gamers use social media extensively.  Media such as YouTube and Facebook are popular with both groups.  However, more dedicated ‘gamer’ media like Twitch or Discord have a much stronger appeal with the shooter fans.  Shooter fans are twice as likely to use Twitch for example.

Different consumers

Fans of shooters and casual gaming also have different consumer tastes and preferences in their lives outside of gaming.

It is in this regard that the difference between the audience composition for different genres are likely to become more important for gaming brands in future.

Gaming, as an industry, now forms a major part of mainstream culture.  One of the consequences of this is that gaming businesses are increasingly looking to partner with brands outside the world of gaming.

Joint promotional opportunities with non-native brands will be either more or less attractive depending on the type of audience a game attracts.  One obvious area where this is developing fast is in eSports.  eSports are attracting growing and increasingly diverse audiences, presenting attractive opportunities for advertising and sponsorship. 

eSports and gaming can often attract and engage with audiences that more traditional media struggles to reach.  For brands outside gaming, access to these audiences is an appealing prospect.

Each to their own

Knowing which audience a particular game or eSports event is likely to attract is therefore vital.  Big audience numbers are important – but unless these numbers can be accurately profiled, they remain problematic for would-be sponsors and advertisers.

For example, casual gamers are more likely to list arts and crafts in their interests (30% vs 21%).  That means arts and crafts brands, content and events offer a much more meaningful area of potential opportunity. 

On the other hand, shooter fans are more likely to list technology and gadgets as an interest (45% vs 26%), which makes technology brands more obvious partners for this genre.

Non-native brands, looking to partner with gaming brands will increasingly want to understand how different games, different genres and different events work in terms of the audience they attract.

New Media

Gaming has already started exploring its potential as a new media (with big brands like Coca-Cola now involved with eSports) but in many ways this journey has just begun.

A more in-depth understanding of these audiences is the way forward.  As gaming develops, the audiences attracted will become increasingly diverse.  It is already the case that fans of sports games have a different profile from either casual gamers or shooter fans.  The same is true if you look at virtually any other genre – be it horror, RPGs or racing games etc.

This starts to matter even more in the emerging world of eSports.  This new media is still growing and, to some extent, still on a steep learning curve. 

Knowing that an eSports event attracts 4 million viewers is great. However, the value of this audience is seriously limited if you know little or nothing about it beyond a headline number.   What countries do these viewers come from?  How old are they?  Are they male or female?  If even these very basic questions cannot be accurately answered, the appeal of such eSports events for non-native brands will never reach its full potential.

These are important questions that eSports will have to answer. So this will be the theme of our next blog.

For further information about the UK gaming market

The statistics quoted in this article come from our UK Gaming Market Report of 2021. 

This report provides invaluable insight into current trends in the UK gaming market, covering detailed gamer demographics, genre preferences, device preferences, trends in Cloud, eSports audiences, VR, gamer consumer profiles, aspirations for the future and more. 

You can find out more about this report on our website.  

If you wish to follow our weekly blog you can view all out past articles on our website here.

If you have any specific questions about our services, please contact us.

Sources

Playbook – UK Gaming Market Report 2021, Synchronix Research

As a society we have become more conscious of green issues and the dangers of global warming.  New technology such as solar and wind power and electric cars are becoming increasingly prevalent.

But to what extent do we associate ourselves with green causes and environmentalism these days?  And, if we do, is that really making any significant difference to our behaviour?  Or is there a lot of ‘green’ window dressing involved here?

How green are we?

Market research from Synchronix shows that, in 2021, 8% of UK adults (aged 16-64) list ‘environmentalism’ as one of their key interests. 

To put that in context this is more than the proportion who see ‘religion’ as a key interest (5%).  And this is on a par with the 8% who say ‘motorsports, cars and bikes’ are a key interest.

That does not mean to say that ONLY 8% of us care about the environment.  Take religion as an example.  Only 5% of us would identify religion as one of our main interests.  However, far more than 5% of us would identify/associate ourselves with a particular religion (as opposed to having no religion at all). 

It’s much the same with people who express an interest in environmentalism.  It may be that only 8% of us would strongly associate ourselves with the green cause but, no doubt, a great many more people beyond this number would nevertheless care about the environment, albeit to a lesser degree. 

This 8% would therefore represent those of us who are most strongly committed to a greener future.

But does it make a difference?

Saying you are a keen supporter of environmentalism and actually doing something tangible about it are two different things.  Do such sentiments translate into action?

There is evidence in our survey to suggest that it does. 

18% of people who express their support for environmentalism live in households that either own an electric or hybrid car and/or have solar panels on the roof.  This compares to 10% of those who don’t see environmentalism as one of their key interests.  So, an interest in environmentalism can translate into tangible action.

Who are the ‘greens’?

Those with a keen interest in environmentalism are as likely to be male as female and come from a mix of ages.  Perhaps environmentalism is a little more popular amongst younger adults, but not significantly more so (10% for the under 35s vs 7% for the over 55s is hardly an earth-shattering generational divide).  The same is true when looking at differences by household income – 9% for those earning above £25k a year as against 7% for lower income households reflects an extremely limited real difference. 

It seems clear that interest in the environment really does come from a broad mix of people from different backgrounds.

However, keen environmentalists are more likely than the rest of us to also be religious (17% claiming a strong interest in religion is significantly higher than the figure of 5% for everyone else).  It would seem that religious belief, for some people at least, encourages them to care more about the environment.

Green activism

Enthusiastic supporters of the green agenda are also more likely to see themselves as being involved with social activism (19% vs 5% for the rest of the population).  However, this does mean that most green enthusiasts do not actually see themselves as a social activist.

Perhaps unsurprisingly keen environmentalists also show a stronger interest in nature and the outdoors more generally.  Our survey shows that they are, for example, more likely to express a strong interest in wildlife (49% vs 14%); more likely to enjoy walking/hiking (63% vs 33%); and more likely to enjoy gardening (50% vs 24%).

In this sense a passion for environmentalism can be seen to be interwoven with a person’s wider lifestyle.  Whether their passion for the outdoors makes them more environmentally conscious or whether they are more environmentally conscious because of their higher engagement with the natural world is debatable.  However, it is probably more likely that environmentalism and a passion for the outdoors and the natural world are inter-related aspects of the same lifestyle (rather than one serving to promote the other).

Has COVID made us think differently about our environment?

COVID has brought big changes to our lives over the past year and a half.  Lockdowns have limited our ability to socialise and curtailed a lot of indoor social activities that we took for granted before.

Getting out and about in the open air, at times, has been the only alternative to being cooped up at home on our own.  Perhaps some of us have become more aware of the value of our natural world as a result and hence more concerned for the environment.

Many of us will also be aware that one of the side effects of lockdown has been the reduction in pollution.  Fewer cars and planes travelling from A to B means fewer emissions.  More limited economic activity has meant less pollution.

Even if only temporary, COVID has led to the biggest reduction in CO₂ emissions ever measured globally – fully 17% in early April 2020.  In some cities the difference in air quality this has created has been very noticeable.

One cannot help but wonder, in the longer term, whether COVID will have a lasting impact in terms of causing many of us to re-assess our priorities with regards to the environment.

Future Generations

Interest in environmentalism is a little higher amongst parents with children under the age of 12 (10% vs 7% for non-parents).  This is only a small difference, but it does suggest that parents of younger children have been prompted to think more deeply about these issues and the kind of world they want their children to grow up in.  And, if so, it is likely they will pass on these concerns and values on to the next generation.

It would be a great exaggeration to claim that the UK is a ‘green’ nation today.  After all, 8% is very much a minority.  However, 8% of UK adults equates to nearly 4 million people who now see environmentalism and green issues as representing key concerns for the future.

Sources:

Synchronix Research:  Survey of 1007 UK adults aged 16-64 conducted online in May/June 2021.

AAAS

About Synchronix

Synchronix is a full-service market research agency.  We believe in using market research to help our clients understand how best to prepare for the future. 

You can read more about us on our website.  

If you wish to follow our weekly blog, you can view all our past articles on our website here.

If you have any specific questions about our services, please contact us.

Over 80% of UK adults have now received their first vaccination, and over 60% are fully protected, so is there finally some light at the end of the COVID tunnel?

With the Indian variant now driving up the number of infections and the final phase of lockdown easing still to come, there is still some uncertainty. So, if we look at the numbers, what are they telling us?

Cases are starting to rise again

The easing of lockdown in the spring, coupled with the appearance of the Indian variant in the UK have combined to start pushing case numbers up again.  Yet this has thankfully not translated into substantial increases in numbers of hospitalisations or deaths.  So, what do we see if we take a closer look at the numbers?

The trends

Perhaps if we start by plotting the history of COVID infections in the UK over the past year we might be able to see some trends. 

You are probably familiar with government graphs showing trends in cases or trends in deaths etc.  They have appeared on the news often enough over the past year after all.  But often we don’t see all the information plotted together on the same chart and that can make it tricky to see how, for example, cases are translating into hospital admissions.

However, if we chart new cases, hospital admissions and deaths together on the same graph we get the following:

The variant effect

Well, we can clearly see the trends in case numbers; these are by far and away the biggest numbers on the chart after all.  We can also mark some key dates on the chart for context – like when the Kent variant was first identified, when vaccine roll out began and when we first spotted the Indian variant in the UK. 

This chart clearly shows us how cases rose in the UK after the Kent variant popped up in the Autumn of 2020.  We can also see just how bad things got in December/January, with the big spike in new cases really standing out.  And since late January we can clearly see how new case numbers tailed away to a low level during the spring.  Unfortunately, we can also see how new case numbers have started rising again in June.

But what about hospitalisations and deaths?  These numbers are also plotted on the chart.  But, oh dear!  It’s very hard to see the trend in either because the numbers are so small relative to new case numbers.  We can just about make out that the numbers for hospitalisations and deaths experienced an uptick in December/January but otherwise the trend line looks flat.

This is the main reason why we rarely see all three of these things plotted together – doing so makes it hard to see what is happening in terms of hospital admissions or deaths.

So how can we visualise the COVID trends in a more accessible way?

The raw data does not lend itself to easily comparing all three measures together in a single visual.  The case numbers dwarf the rest of the information to such a degree that it mostly obscures our ability to see any trends at all in the other measures.

One way to get around this problem is to create an Index. 

If we create an Index for each of our three key measures (cases, hospital admissions and deaths) then this makes a direct comparison much easier to represent visually.  As with any Index we need to set a base score of 100 for each measure.  In this case, let’s take 100 as equal to the average number recorded for each measure over the past year. 

The average number of cases over the past year turns out to be around 12,000 per day.  So, if we set that as equal to 100, we can create an index for cases based around it.  The same approach sets the Index for hospital admissions at 100 being equal to the average number for the period (c.950) and in the case of deaths, the average is c.240. 

Now if we use this to re-plot our graph using these Indexes, it is much easier to see how trends in these three measures might relate to one another.

Cases led to deaths last winter

Now it is much clearer to see just how the trends in hospital admissions and deaths mirror / follow the trends in reported cases.  We can also see the slight time lag involved.

In the winter spike, it is now apparent that the peak in case numbers very quickly translated to peaks in hospital admissions and deaths.

So, what can we tell about where we are today based on past trends?

Well, if we look at the recent data, from April onwards, we can see cases rising again in May/June but, currently this has not translated into any notable rise in hospitalisations or deaths.  The vaccination program is having the desired effect in terms of depressing the numbers of the most serious cases, even if it has not prevented a rise in cases overall.

But now things are different

We can learn more if we compare what happened during the last significant wave (Autumn of 2020) with what is happening now. 

Back in September/October 2020 we had some similar conditions here in the UK – lockdown had been eased after cases had fallen to a low level over the summer for one thing.  However, as restrictions eased, so we began to see an increase in cases.  We also experienced the introduction of a new, more infectious, strain of COVID in the form of the Kent variant.

It would seem that the UK is now facing a similar set of circumstances: we have eased restrictions after having brought down the case numbers to a low level but we are also having to live with emergence of a new and more infectious variant (Indian rather than Kentish this time).

So, what do we see if we directly compare what happened in the Autumn of 2020 with what’s happening now using our Indexed visualisation?

This makes it is even easier to compare the two periods directly.  And the more focused comparison makes it possible for us to mark a few other key dates on these graphs for context – specifically, dates when lockdowns were eased.

The Autumn data shows that, as September progressed, we saw a rapid rise in all three measures: cases, hospitalisations and deaths. 

The recent data shows a less rapid but nevertheless significant rise in cases, even though the Indian variant is more infectious than the Kent variant.  On the negative side, it looks like this rise is set to continue.

The vaccination effect

On the positive side we can see that hospitalisations and deaths are not rising at anywhere near the alarming rate that we saw last Autumn.  We have seen no more than a slight increase so far. In this respect it looks like the vaccines are indeed having the desired effect.

Much of the rise in cases reflects infections amongst younger people who are least likely to be protected by vaccination at this time.  These infections are not translating into more serious cases because younger adults are less likely to become seriously ill with COVID.  Also, people who have received a vaccine who get infected are much less likely to get seriously ill.

There is cause for some caution here, however.  Rising numbers of infections increases the probability of new strains emerging; something scientists are keen to avoid. 

But, as vaccination continues to roll out over the summer, we should see an even more significant depressive effect on infection rates as well as on the numbers experiencing serious illness and death.

Whilst we may not be there yet, but the figures clearly show that there is indeed some light at the end of the tunnel!

Source:  UK Government Coronavirus data

About Synchronix

Synchronix is a full-service market research agency.  We believe in using market research to help our clients understand how best to prepare for the future. 

In this particular blog piece we’ve aimed to show what the numbers are telling us about current COVID trends in the UK.  However, we also hope we’ve been able to show why and how using an Index can help us visualise trends in a manner that is more accessible and meaningful that simply using raw data alone.

You can read more about us on our website.  

If you wish to follow our weekly blog you can view all out past articles on our website here.

If you have any specific questions about our services, please contact us.