When it comes to reaching a younger audience, brands often try to think of innovative ways to appeal to these pickier generations who look for authenticity and relatability. One of the easiest ways to reach a demographic of younger consumers is through esports.
Esports is a relatively new and rapidly growing industry that’s continuing to change the way brands advertise. This includes sponsoring tournaments, collaborating with influencers on TikToks, creating in-game advertisements, and making memes for social media channels. The key, no matter which direction you choose, is to be genuine and find ways to seamlessly immerse your brand within gaming-related conversations.
Esports Fans Demographics
If you are looking to relate to younger consumers, esports is the perfect way to highlight your products and services to an eager fanbase. Here is the breakdown of age groups watching esports and attending tournaments:
- Millennials (25-41 years old) – 50%
- Gen Z (16-24 years old) – 26%
- Generation X (42-56 years old) – 20%
- Baby Boomers (57+) – 4%
It should also be noted that 63% of esports viewers identify as male according to data from Deloitte Study “Let’s Play! 2022 The European esports market”(2022).
Esports Fans Consumer Habits
What makes esports such a great focus for brands looking to target younger consumers is the fact that most esports fans are old enough to have a career and their own money but young enough to still enjoy spending their money on hobbies and interests.
You’ll often come across TikToks and Instagram reels from gamers that joke that they are kids at heart that now have the money they need to buy the things they always wanted, whether it’s an extensive figure collection, Pokemon plushies, or massive LEGO sets. That’s because 15% of esports viewers are in the top 10% of the income bracket while the largest group (at 25%) are in the 51-57% bracket — this suggests esports viewers are slightly more wealthy than the average consumer.
How to appeal to esports fans
So how can you appeal to these willing consumers? First, you need to create advertisements and sponsorship opportunities that align with their interests. Esports fans value honesty and authenticity so they can smell “cringe” from miles away. Focus on creating content with popular esports teams, pros, and influencers that can showcase your products through their own perspective or simply get your brand’s logos on a popular content creators’ livestream of a tournament.
You can even create social media posts for your own social channels that incorporate ongoing esports tournaments (a funny idea I just thought of is a cleaning company making a joke about a team “sweeping” another team in a match or maybe a phone brand making a silly video of two esports fans calling each other on the phone to argue about their favorite pro players etc.).
Esports fans are looking for “thrilling” and “exciting” content as their number one reason for tuning into tournaments and gaming-related livestreams, so you might even want to create content series or social media videos that play into their desire to see competitions and contests. No matter what you do, just make sure it’s creative, fun, and true to your brand.
And where should these advertisements go? 60% of esports viewers use Twitch to consume esports content. Another 25% use team and event channels. You will also want to look into posts on X (formerly Twitter) to get the largest esports audience on socials followed by TikTok for younger fans.
In-game banners and content is another winning concept that will reach all esports fans authentically. Think Rocket League cars with your company’s logo and colors or Fortnite players competing in a custom game themed after your brand. The possibilities are endless with the right creative team.
Do you need data to fuel your next esports project?
Abios has historical and stream-live esports data for League of Legends, Counter-Strike, and many other popular esports games. We cover everything from stream-live dragon kills, to every time Ahri uses a charm ability or s1mple kills an opponent with AWP.
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