What to Know about eSports Fans & Gamers

Part Two: Know Your Audience

While you’ll find eSports fans across the age spectrum, it’s the younger generations – Millennials and even more so Gen Z – that have really embraced this “alternative” sports category. In fact, the very future of the modern sports bar may depend on catering to eSports fans. Data shows that nontraditional sports, like eSports, are far more interesting to Millennials with 56% favoring them, and only 44% saying the same for traditional sports.

Bottom line: If you’re not trying to get eSports fans into your establishment, you’re likely dooming your business.

Who are eSports Fans & Players?

Suffice to say, eSport fans and players likely don’t resemble your typical bar guests. They are a highly populated and underserved group of folks. They’re a community that have never had a place like a sports bar to congregate with the exception of a few eSports bars and cafes sprinkled across the country. This means they represent the Holy Grail of marketing — potential new guests in a dense, untapped market!

However, they do have some common overlap with your existing customer base to keep in mind as you plan your marketing efforts. Key aspects such as age, gender, and income level will be similar to your current constituency. From there we need to add their gaming patterns to the relevant details as you learn to market to them.

HubSpot conducted a comprehensive study to determine exactly how the gaming community is comprised and who is watching and playing in gaming tournaments. The study found that many eSports fans have three main qualities in common. In broad strokes, they are young, male, and affluent.

Roughly 38% of players were males aged 16-24. This same age/sex bracket were also found four times as likely to play in at least one eSport tournament every month. An additional 35% were between the ages of 25-34, and also very likely to partake in tournaments. Below you can see a breakdown of how this audience pans out according to key audience indicators.

Image by Hubspot

This data presents interesting marketing opportunities for bars and restaurants.

How to Score with the Gaming Community

We’ll go into more detail about marketing to your eSports guests in a later post, but there are two main ways of scoring within the gaming community – airing eSports on your TV and hosting gaming tournaments.

We recommend starting off by showing eSports, both nationally televised events as well as Internet-only streaming tournaments. Twitch Sports is a good place to start, where you have access to a variety of eSport-specific content that you can stream right in your bar. Restaurants can quickly gauge whether the interest is broad enough to follow through with a gaming-specific event. It also gives your current bar guests an opportunity to form their own opinion about eSports and digital gaming.

If you’re looking for a schedule of major eSports events both on TV and streaming, we list them all daily on the SportsTV Guide.

Global measurement and data analytics company Nielsen conducted a robust study that consisted of survey-based attitudes and preference data via Twitch viewership and behavior data from more than 2,000 U.S. eSports fans. In the infographic below, you will find that the majority of Twitch eSport fans reflect the passionate nature and dedication of the gaming community. More than 60% of Twitch eSports fans engage with gaming personalities (aka pro gamers, analysts, etc.) on a daily basis, and nearly one in three viewed at least five hours of live Fortnite video content on Twitch in the past year.

Image by Nielsen

That’s an insane level of dedication and passion that rivals traditional sports fans. Armed with this data, there are significant value propositions that restaurants can use to engage gamers with content directly cater to fans’ interests.

Start by posting on your social media channels that you’ll be showing a big eSports tournament (such as the League of Legends World Championship). This will help you as you begin building your reputation as a gaming-friendly establishment in your community. You can start off as simple showing monthly tournaments and building up to weekly events. Get a feel for how different tournaments run, so you can build a schedule and marketing plan around it.

By showing major eSports events, you’ll get your feet wet within the gaming community. You’re giving them a place to watch their favorite gamers and games play in an atmosphere designed for passionate fans – aka your bar.

Aside from social media, there are other ways you can break into these digital natives. The bread and butter for many of the eSport gamers is their local video game store. Reach out to your local game store and let them know you’re looking to attract that gaming community to watch eSports at your establishment or to potentially host your own tournament. They will likely be interested and relay the info to their customers. You can also go one step further and ask them to post on their social media sites to help spread the word that your bar is an up and coming gaming hub. You may even want to invite them to be a partner in your endeavor, linking yourself to another business that already has a firm foot in the eSports community.

Beyond the Games

It is also important to remain abreast of trends and industry-specific terminology to get a better understanding of how this audience operates and what drives their interests.

Cosplay (a contraction of the words “costume” and “play”) is when people create outfits to look like popular characters from movies, anime, and video games. Think of it as Halloween but taking to a whole new level. Comicon and gaming conventions like PAX are only one example of how vibrant and dedicated the fan base is. Although not all pro & amateur cosplayers play eSports, a handful do; therefore, there are ways to work this related-hobby into your gaming event structure such as video game-themed costume contests, etc.

Professional cosplayers (yes, that’s a thing) can have tens to hundred of thousands of followers, making them social media influencers you should consider employing for event promotions.

At the same time, also strengthen your bond with your eSports fan regulars and ask for their input. At the end of the day, they’re the ones who will also be attending and recommending you to other people. It’s never too early to begin the buzz via word-of-mouth.

As your eSports audience becomes more defined, you’ll have a much easier time crafting the right message for your marketing tactics.