If you’re interested in the power of eSports than you need not look further than FIFA’s first eWorld Cup qualifying tournament “FUT Champions Cup – Barcelona”. This 3-day event – a qualifying tournament – was held in Barcelona, Spain and brought together the best 128 FIFA eSports athletes.
However, it’s not the format of the series that really matters, but rather the traffic that was brought to FIFA eWorld Cup’s Twitch & YouTube Channels. Over the course of the 3-day tournament, FIFA’s Twitch channel accrued 2.1 million hours watched, which was nearly triple the 788,000 hours that was watched in 2017 altogether. Those 2.1 million hours were the product of nearly 300,000 concurrent viewers across all three days. That means each viewer was watching the tournament for about 7.5 hours on average. Lastly, but certainly not least, is the actual in-stadium viewership. The Grand Final, which pit DhTekKz vs. nicholas99fc, sold out their venue to the tune of 17,000 fans.
This event again gives credence to the fact that eSports, in general, are an area that brand marketers should be exploring for potential investment. Esports also give brand marketers an opportunity to get in front of an audience whose buying power continues to grow. Of Twitch’s users, 81.5% are male with 55% falling in the age range of 18 to 34. Considering the amount of time the viewers spent watching FUT Champions Cup – 2.1 million hours – it’s also valuable for brand marketers to understand that in eSports streaming, there are plenty of opportunities to get in front of the fans.
This value will only grow as the viewership of eSports continues to rise. It will be interesting to follow the popularity of future tournaments as we get nearer to the FIFA 2018 eWorld Cup.
Categories: eSports, FIFA, Social Media, Sponsorship