Nielsen: eSports audience is 81 per cent male
In an increasingly diverse games market, a new report gives the eSports audience a distinctly retro feel
Though eSports is one of the fastest growing markets in the games business, new research from Nielsen indicates that, in terms of audience demographics, it's something of a throwback.
Nielsen's 360° Gaming Report laid out some relatively familiar observations about the composition of the increasingly diverse audience for games: 49 per cent of mobile/tablet gamers and 35 per cent of 8th generation console players are female, both of which defy the common perception of gamers from the industry's past.
However, the composition of the eSports audience will be familiar to those who followed the industry in the years before the explosion in mobile and casual gaming. According to Nielsen, only 10 per cent of the population consider themselves "fans" of eSports, and within that niche 81 per cent are "more likely" to be male.
Nielsen also observed that eSports fans have a higher average income: $69,000, "making them an attractive audience for marketers." And expectations for the sector are high, with Newzoo projecting $765 million in annual revenues by the end of 2018.
