J. Clement
Research lead covering internet and gaming
eSports and online gaming in Denmark - Statistics & Facts
N0tail is the gamer tag of the Dane Johan Sundstein, the highest-earning eSports player worldwide of all time. As of March 2020, he won almost seven million U.S. dollars in prize money through DOTA 2 (Defense of the Ancients 2) tournaments. In 2019 alone, he won a third of the total prize money earned in Denmark. Thus, Denmark belonged to one of the largest eSports countries in the world. As of 2019, the Scandinavian country counted 410 active eSports competition players.
The multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game DOTA 2 had the most awards won by Danish eSports players. The multiplayer first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) and the battle royal and survival game Fortnite had the second and third highest-earning eSports players from Denmark. CS:GO generated the most revenue in eSports bettings at the national lottery Danske Spil in 2018. Besides, it is also one of the most popular video games among Twitch streamers from the country.
In general, the popularity of online gaming among Danes remained quite stable in recent years. However, surveys from 2012 and 2018 found that the vast majority never played games on the internet. The share of people who played at least monthly increased slightly from 27 percent to 30 percent during the period. According to another survey conducted in the second quarter of 2019, buying games online via, for example, Steam, Google Play or Xbox was even more unpopular. Roughly a fifth of respondents stated to do so. Men and younger age groups in particular bought their video games via the internet.
In the past month, after the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Denmark, video game consumption seemed to grow. 16 percent of respondents to a survey spent more time on gaming and online gaming than before. Another example shows that the Fortnite app for iOS significantly increased its popularity within this period. While the app did not exceed 30 thousand daily active users in Denmark before the shutdown on March 11, the amount exceeded 50 thousand users in the beginning of May. Additionally, watching Danish-speaking channels on Twitch increased as well. From February to April 2020, the number of viewers more than doubled.
The multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game DOTA 2 had the most awards won by Danish eSports players. The multiplayer first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) and the battle royal and survival game Fortnite had the second and third highest-earning eSports players from Denmark. CS:GO generated the most revenue in eSports bettings at the national lottery Danske Spil in 2018. Besides, it is also one of the most popular video games among Twitch streamers from the country.
In general, the popularity of online gaming among Danes remained quite stable in recent years. However, surveys from 2012 and 2018 found that the vast majority never played games on the internet. The share of people who played at least monthly increased slightly from 27 percent to 30 percent during the period. According to another survey conducted in the second quarter of 2019, buying games online via, for example, Steam, Google Play or Xbox was even more unpopular. Roughly a fifth of respondents stated to do so. Men and younger age groups in particular bought their video games via the internet.
In the past month, after the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Denmark, video game consumption seemed to grow. 16 percent of respondents to a survey spent more time on gaming and online gaming than before. Another example shows that the Fortnite app for iOS significantly increased its popularity within this period. While the app did not exceed 30 thousand daily active users in Denmark before the shutdown on March 11, the amount exceeded 50 thousand users in the beginning of May. Additionally, watching Danish-speaking channels on Twitch increased as well. From February to April 2020, the number of viewers more than doubled.
