That the pandemic has accelerated some trends already in place for some years now it is nothing new, but in some cases, as in eSports, the impulse received was particularly strong.
With the traditional sports stopped by Covid-19, many athletes have started playing football or basketball in the virtual fields, not to mention the Formula 1 drivers who kept themselves in shape by competing live on Twitch.
Obviously it wasn’t the same, but the result is that some people with a large following have suddenly exposed their fans to competitive video games much more than in the past and the results have been seen, even in Italy.
The analysis
Turnover of 45 million for eSports in Italy, but there is a lack of incentives and important figures
by Lorenzo Fantoni
One in two Italians know them
According to a survey by Deloitte, one in two Italians between the ages of 16 and 65 has seen contents related to eSports in the last period. An important figure that shows the capabilities of a phenomenon that every year seems to finally explode, but which in the end for some reason remains confined, despite the increasingly interesting investments.
According to this investigation, which involved 20 thousand people in 12 European countries and regions, Italians are among the most regular users of eSports content, surpassed only by Spaniards and Poles: 27% of Italian consumers watch this type of content at least once a week. They are mainly people under 40, belonging to the so-called Generation Z (17%) or Y, ie between 26 and 40 years (46%); they also have an average high level of education (76%) and a job (81%).
An important fact concerns the change of pace implemented during the pandemic: 54% of this potential audience said they started following eSports in 2020, during the lockdown. The female audience recorded the most significant increase, with an increase of more than 2 and a half times, compared to the scarce two times of male consumers. However, the presence of women among the spectators of Italian eSports is still limited compared to the male one, given that we are talking about about 41%.
Unfortunately, as has happened in many other cases, the increase in audience did not directly lead to an increase in investment: both because companies had to review their balance sheets and because there were no live events (which has always been one of the most requested forms of sponsorship), but also because of a surplus of free events, which made monetization complex.
The interview
Comics, video games, esports: what the 2021 edition of Lucca Comics will be like
by Lorenzo Fantoni
If the public is there, at the moment the biggest stumbling block, as we have already seen, concerns investments, the lack of incentives and the need to look at the long term and not at an immediate return, which often does not exist, because the sector is not yet stable and there are many variables at stake: “The esports sector continues to be , in Italy and in Europe, a young, dynamic and strongly consumer-oriented sector, which consequently continues to have a positive vision of its future – he explained Francesca Tagliapietra of Deloitte Italy “If the entire esports ecosystem continues to focus on the big picture and put short-term interests aside for long-term development, there is a good chance that esports will thrive and achieve sustainable success.”
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