Christina Gough
Research expert covering sports and video gaming
Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease pandemic effect on the eSports industry - statistics & facts
The effect of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the eSports industry was significant, as people sought alternative forms of entertainment due to travel restrictions and cancelations of live entertainment events. eSports are video game competitions played online either alone or as a team, and so they are not as constrained by public safety measures as live sports. Sporting events in particular were hard hit by COVID-19, with many professional sporting events outright canceled due to the pandemic or played without fans in attendance. As people were unable to tune in normally to sporting events, eSports engagement boomed during the health crisis. One of the main reasons for increased investment in eSports in 2020 related to COVID-19, with the primary causes being increases in the use of online streaming platforms and social distancing measures forcing people to connect online.
Viewership and participation in eSports during COVID-19
With younger generations growing up more and more online, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed online engagement even higher while people stayed at home. In a 2020 U.S. survey on increasing eSports interest by age, at the start of the pandemic primarily young people under the age of 24 were getting more involved with eSports. With live sports being for the most part cancelled during the pandemic, sports fans turned to other alternative forms of entertainment, such as eSports. According to a U.S. survey on alternative sports content engagement in 2020, nearly 20 percent of respondents engaged with eSports as an alternative to live sports, and even more respondents turned to classic games.Impact of COVID-19 on eSports events
While eSports are usually played online and were not affected as strongly by social distancing measures during the pandemic, there are also a number of live eSports events played every year around the world. However, these live events are often also streamed digitally, making it easier for fans around the world to tune in to competitions without traveling in-person. In the United States alone, almost 10 percent of eSports fans attended remote eSports events several times a week. Some live sporting events even offered digital alternatives to make up for the cancelation of live events. NASCAR did exactly this in 2020, and while live car racing events were canceled, the organization planned a virtual 100-lap race and built the online racing service iRacing, which attracted five thousand new users worldwide in the first month of the pandemic.
