We recently published our Games Trends to Watch in 2022 article. It’s now time to turn our analytical eye to 2022’s biggest trends in esports and games live streaming.
As you’ll learn, many of the developments overlap with our games trends — including NFTs and cross-media strategies. But esports and streaming also have other emerging trends, mostly leveraging their biggest strength: community.
1. Blockchain Will Become More Prominent in Esports as Organizations Continue to Diversify Revenue Streams
Sponsorships have always been the foundation of esports revenues. The esports audience is young, diverse, and growing, making the industry a magnet for attracting brand sponsorships. The esports market relies heavily on sponsorship, which accounted for almost 60% of esports revenues last year.
Putting all your eggs in one basket can be risky, which is why esports companies are striving to diversify their revenue streams. To that end, teams and organizers are increasingly exploring ways to monetize fans directly.
Many are eyeing blockchain tech and NFTs to achieve these goals. And we’re already starting to see new esports business models emerge. So far, esports audiences have been largely positive about blockchain and NFTs, as esports fans:
- Are digital native and therefore curious and accepting of new technologies
- Is already used to buying digital goods and items in their favorite games
- Have more disposable income than the general online population. Our data shows that 75% of the esports audience has a high household income, suggesting they’re likelier to buy speculative digital goods.
However, the above points are also true for gamers, a group that has been vocally negative about NFTs and blockchain technology. The difference here is that NFTs can directly impact the games players enjoy, whereas esports NFT innovations are mainly about demonstrating fandom — often outside the esports events themselves.
For example, organizations are innovating loyalty and reward programs by putting them on the blockchain. Many programs now allow users to trade digital goods with other fans, increasing engagement and personal investment in an esports brand.
Fans can also earn digital rewards when they engage with an organization’s content, including commenting on an Instagram post, watching a YouTube video, or chatting on a Twitch stream.
Fan participation like this builds reach and engagement for esports teams and organizations. It can also open the door to more sponsorship revenues.
At the same time, esports fan tokens — like any cryptocurrency — are tradeable and can increase in value over time, echoing many aspects of the traditional stock market. This underlines another advantage of esports’ growing blockchain relationship: Initial Fan Token Offerings can make raising investment easier for esports organizations.
Esports’s relationship with blockchain and NFT is already beginning to flourish, and we expect to see even more developments throughout the year.
2. Mobile Esports Will Continue to Grow as the Biggest Mobile Publishers Fight for Dominance
Mobile esports has taken the market by storm, following years of console and PC titles dominating. Thanks to its low barriers to entry, mobile has captured millions of esports fans around the globe. Most people in mature and emerging markets have smartphones, and mobile games typically have low specs, helping mobile esports flourish.
What’s more, improving 5G tech will strengthen mobile internet connections and make esports play more stable and viable. A robust and consistent internet connection is essential for mobile esports to thrive.
While mobile esports is quickly making a name for itself in growth markets across Latin America and Southeast Asia, more mature markets are also getting involved as new mobile games enter the market with an esports focus. Battle royale titles in particular are paving the way.
Free Fire and PUBG Mobile are among the battle royale’s most prevalent on mobile. It’s no coincidence that these titles are extremely popular in emerging markets. Like in PC and console esports, huge player numbers, regional leagues, and high-octane international competitions attract millions of viewers.
Meanwhile, games from the biggest games companies globally — Tencent, Riot Games (also owned by Tencent), and Moonton (owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance) — are vying to become esports’ #1 mobile MOBA.
Each of these publishers is leaning heavily on global expansion:
- Riot’s League of Legends: Wild Rift benefits from the company’s longstanding experience in esports development, the popularity of League of Legends esports and PC, and its many regional leagues across Brazil, Japan, North America, and Southeast Asia
- Tencent’s Honor of Kings (Arena of Valor in the West) is one of the most popular games on the planet, boasts play across all levels, has a cup with a $10 million prize pool, and is moving to new regions — including the West — with support from professional leagues
- Moonton’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is pushed by its strong presence across Southeast Asia, but the company is also eyeing Brazil, CIS countries, and other regions.
Each of these mobile esports operates tournaments across different regions, drawing the attention of the wider esports audience. The result can only be positive for mobile esports. The more people who watch and play, the more companies invest, and the stronger mobile esports becomes.
3. The Lines Between Esports and Traditional Sports Will Continue to Blur
Esports’ young audience has long attracted sponsorships and attention from sports brands. At the same time, esports has learned many a lesson from traditional sports. Now, the two friendly markets are beginning to unify.
The synergies between esports and traditional esports are becoming more apparent as each tests the other’s waters. For example, esports teams are evolving into lifestyle brands (brands that are parts of consumers’ everyday lives).
Esports teams are dabbling in music, skateboarding, rollerblading, and chess. And organizers are tapping into new audiences by partnering with content creators and organizations across these non-gaming areas.
Esports companies are now even starting to move into traditional sports themselves. A notable example here is esports team EVOs, which recently announced a real-world basketball team.
The popularity of professional basketball has been growing — especially in Southeast Asia, where the NBA has strived to cultivate a basketball culture via the Jr. NBA Program. The program led to basketball’s addition into the school curriculum across Indonesian elementary, middle, and high schools. EVOS, also based in Indonesia, is looking to diversify its revenue stream and capitalize on basketball’s growth.
As we mentioned, traditional sports can also learn many lessons from esports. Esports organizations
- Utilize live-streaming platforms to interact with their fans
- Prioritize digital content as one of the fundamental ways to inform and engage with their fans
- Are quickly adapting to new technology trends (like short-video platforms).
Traditional sports are keenly learning from esports’ lessons. To that end, some of the world’s biggest sports teams are directly entering esports to rejuvenate their brands and connect with the new generation:
- Soccer teams like FC Barcelona and Flamengo have announced gaming and esports divisions
- NBA runs an esports league including esports-specific teams and the gaming divisions of traditional NBA teams
- Traditional broadcasters are partnering with leading gaming content creators to reach the gaming community via co-streaming (more on that below), e.g., Brazilian streamer Gaules teaming up with F1 and the NBA,
The divide between traditional sports and esports was once straightforward. Now, that line is blurring and will continue to distort this year. Both esports and traditional sports will benefit.
4. Co-Streaming Will Grow into Common Marketing Strategy for Brands, Even Those Outside Gaming and Esports
Democratizing esports broadcasts and allowing co-streaming has become extremely popular. It’s a proven tool for publishers and organizers to exponentially grow their total addressable audience.
At the same time, allowing co-streaming is more transparent and shows trust in the content — two things esports and streaming fans appreciate. Results have been promising so far.
Last year, Riot opened the broadcasting floodgates to content creators worldwide, allowing them to rebroadcast stage 2 of the VALORANT Champions Tour. The competition broke prior viewership records for the title. And our data shows that third-party channels accounted for two-thirds of the event’s live viewership. Halo Infinite found similar success with the Halo Championship Series.
While the benefits of co-streaming are huge, there are advantages to centralizing broadcasts on internal channels. Keeping broadcasts in-house gives publishers and organizers more control across the board.
Fundamental viewership metrics like average minute audience (AMA) and peak viewership — key bargaining chips for sponsorship deals — are far easier to track when all viewership is centralized. What’s more, publishers and organizers retain more control over the content and its message.
“During a co-stream, a content creator could say something that doesn’t fit with the organizer’s brand and message, potentially affecting sponsorships,” says Luca Chiovato, a Market Analyst at Newzoo focusing on the live streaming market. “Nevertheless, many companies tolerate these risks to boost their viewership and reach.“
We’re also seeing plenty of co-streaming innovation outside of esports, including from Riot. The company is clearly diversifying its content portfolio from the core League of Legends game. Part of this is a robust cross-media strategy that includes TV streaming (more on that in our 2022 Games Trends to Watch article).
During the launch of Arcane, a Netflix show based on the League of Legends IP, Riot partnered with Twitch and Netflix to let content creators stream and react to the first episode on their channels. Leveraging the fanbases of content creators — along with smart marketing campaigns across games — helped the TV series quickly become the top-watched Netflix show across various countries.
Another notable example of co-streaming is the partnership between the NBA and popular Brazilian streamer Gaules, which we mentioned earlier. The deal allowed Gaules to broadcast NBA matches to his sizeable audience — an audience full of young digital natives that the NBA strives to reach.
This year, we expect co-streaming to become a key component in the media mix strategy of several brands and products — inside games and out. Of course, publishers themselves will continue to leverage the audience of the biggest influencers to boost esports’ reach.
Following Arcane’s success, we expect to see co-streaming for future Netflix show launches — particularly those that overlap with the gaming community. Netflix has recently doubled down on its gaming strategy, so there will be many opportunities here.
As we touched on in trend 3, sports leagues will also continue to experiment with live-streaming platforms to tap into younger audiences.
5. Live-Streaming Platforms Will Become Even More Interactive
In 2021, interactive show Rival Peak took Facebook Gaming by storm, generating over 100 million minutes watched in just three months. The show featured AI-controlled contestants. Viewers from over 70 countries could help these virtual contestants solve puzzles and help them progress. Experiences like this leverage two of live streaming’s strongest pillars, immediacy and community.
Following Rival Peak’s success, Facebook Gaming announced a similar experience, PAC-MAN Community, in December. The title will be fully integrated within Facebook’s Gaming. It even allows audiences to interact with Facebook Gaming streamers. Viewers can join ongoing games and play directly with creators through a “Play With Streamer” feature.
In the next 12 months, we expect more platforms and publishers to announce live-streaming-first solutions leveraging creator-viewer interaction. Such experiences will help make the broadcasts even more engaging and memorable, providing additional avenues for directly monetizing fans.
Want deeper dives into trends discussed in this article? Reach out to us! Or learn more about our Newzoo’s Global Esports & Live Streaming Market Report subscription here.
