eSports & games streaming stakeholders urged to widen revenue streams

Juniper Research has forecast that the global eSports and games streaming industry will be worth US$3.5 billion by 2025, up from US$2.1 billion in 2021. This will represent a growth of 70% over the next four years.

The new research, “eSports & Games Streaming: Emerging Opportunities & Market Forecasts 2021-2025 Report”, predicts that market value will be driven by subscription spend to streaming platforms and advertising spend over streams. However, the authors of the report also urge stakeholders to invest in other revenue-generating areas, including broadcasting rights and live event ticket sales … and establish high-value sponsorship deals to maximise the market value of eSports in the future.

The research anticipates that there will be over one billion eSports and games viewers by 2025, as opposed to 800 million viewers by end-2021, with more than half of the viewers in 2025 to be from the Asia-Pacific region.

The report also predicts that rising viewership will create greater levels of competition between content streaming platforms, including Twitch and YouTube.

Report co-author Saidat Giwa-Osagie said: “Successful streaming platforms will be those that can cater for the differences in geographical regions, by including locally-popular streamers and games titles into eSports events.”

Juniper Research recommends that streaming platform providers promote their content to new audiences; and aligning eSports events with other industries, such as the entertainment industry, will help streaming platforms to attract new users.

The complimentary whitepaper is available at https://www.juniperresearch.com/document-library/white-papers/what-to-expect-from-esports-in-2021.