In 2020, esports to generate $1.1 billion, without broadcasting platforms revenues

The following stats were posted on the Newzoo website:

Money

• Esports’ revenue will reach $1.1 billion in 2020. This is not taking into account the revenue of advertising platforms. Compared to last year, the metric will grow by 15.7% (by $150 million).
• Most of it will come from China’s esports market. It will account for 35% of the global revenue.
• Sponsorship remains the biggest revenue stream. In 2020, it will bring in $636.9 million (compared to last year’s $543.5 million). That’s up 17.2% from last year, with a CAGR (2018-2023) of +16.6%..
• Revenue from streaming will hit $18.2 million in 2020, which is 33% more than in 2019. In 2023, streaming will generate $31.6 million.
• In 2020, the strongest growth (up 60.9% from 2019) will be seen in revenue from digital content like exclusive skins. Digital content will generate $21.5 million by the end of December. Over the next three years, its revenues will grow at a CAGR of 72.4%.

People

• By the end of 2020, the esports audience will grow by 11.7% to 495 million people. Esports enthusiasts will account for 222.9 million, with another 272 million being occasional viewers.
• In 2023, the global audience will reach 646 million people, that’s a CAGR of 10.4%. The shares of enthusiasts and occasional viewers will remain approximately the same.
• According to Newzoo, the size of esports audience is growing largely due to emerging markets: Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. Three factors are at play in these regions: urbanization; development of IT infrastructure; the rapid spread of mobile networks.

Events

Newzoo also estimated the profitability of last year’s esports tournaments.

• In 2019, 885 major esports events took place.
• The total revenue from tickets sold for these events amounted to $56.3 million. For comparison, in 2018, ticket sales generated $54.7 million.