Nielsen: Synergy between traditional and eSports can aid brands

According to the 2016 Nielsen eSports Report, brands and traditional sports leagues are scoring points with eSport fans. The study found that for fans of both eSports and traditional sports, direct involvement in eSports can especially elevate fans’ opinion of a brand on top of its gains via traditional sports involvement (+12%). “eSports integrations also offer the prospect of growing purchase intent (+7%) and brand loyalty (+8%) beyond what sports activations generate” said Nielsen in its Newswire. Professional competitive video gaming -eSports- continues to rapidly gain popularity in the U.S., with 14% of the 13+ population now a fan, up from just 8% last year, according to Nielsen. Most of the eSports audience is male (77%) and Millennial (61% aged 18-34), and because streaming is the most popular way to consume eSports content, this group is nearly twice as likely to have streamed a traditional sports event online than the typical U.S. sports fan. Despite eSports fans may not rival the size of many traditional sports fan bases, it’s gaining the attention of many sports leagues, teams, owners and even players. Nielsen explains that when it comes to avid fanship of key sports leagues, the opportunity for synergies looks strong. According to the report, NFL (52%) and NCAA football (45%) score highest among eSports fans, while NBA with 39% is the only league to rank in the top five traditional sports leagues both in terms of avid fanship in the absolute and relative to the general population. “This is noteworthy given the major investments that NBA teams, owners and players have made recently in the eSports space” says Nielsen.