Esports revenue will leap from $900 million in 2018 to $5.05 billion in 2024 with revenues split between game publisher fees, sponsorship, media broadcasting rights, tickets and merchandise, tipping and advertising, according to new research.
The report, “Esports on verge of hypergrowth to $5bn plus gambling – Revenue Forecast to 2024”, from Rethink Technology Research, breaks down each revenue stream regionally between North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the rest of the world.
The revenue growth is accelerating ahead of the rate for acquiring new esports enthusiasts, which itself will go from 154 million in 2018 to 377 million in 2024. There is a rising revenue per fan.
For Pay TV operators that have yet to make a play in esports, the opportunities will come primarily through growth in casual viewing, attracted by “sanitized” esports competitions with appeal beyond enthusiasts. There will be scope for traditional media firms to gain media rights and sell advertising. A key aspect of our forecast is that revenues from media rights, where broadcasters gain rights to broadcast tournaments, are set to climb more steeply than any other category of esports monetization over the next five years, increasing more than 12 times.
The one elephant in the room is esports betting, which in 2018 generated significantly greater revenue than all other categories combined.
Although betting involves many esports fans and also presents opportunities to video service providers, it is a distinct sector outside the esports community or ecosystem that can to some extent be regarded as parasitic.
That said globally we predict esports betting revenues will increase to $5.7 billion over the forecast period driven, by Asia Pacific with China as the biggest market.
Read the full report here:
