Esports Fans Are Valuable Consumers

It’s easy to stereotype Esports as unmotivated teenagers spending all day in their parents’ basement or college students, their eyeballs glued to their computer screen instead of studying. As with any stereotype, these are likely to be accurate for some Esports fans, but they are very “normal,” with jobs, good incomes, children at home and consumer dollars to spend.

The data from five representative 2021 consumer/market surveys from Local Sports Insights in the previous blog post, Esports Is More Mainstream Than Ever and the Platform to Engage with Young Adults, indicated Gen Zers and Millennials are the prime Esports fans audience.

Of all adults 18+ who are Esports fans (and the vast majority are Gen Zers and Millennials), they over-indexed, on average, in the five consumer/market surveys at 127 as employed full-time and 111 as employed part-time. They also over-indexed for all measured occupations, except blue-collar workers.

Unsurprisingly, Gen Zers who are Esports fans have an average household income in the five markets considerably less than Millennials who are Esports fans, or $28,300 and $79,000, respectively. Many Gen Zers, of course, are still college students while most Millennials are several years into their careers. Adults 18+ who are Esports fans generally have the largest household incomes.

Since Millennials who are Esports fans have household incomes substantially more than Gen Zers, it follows these Millennials are more active consumers as many have homes and families to support.

Gen Zers who are Esports fans only over-index, on average, for only two or 12 products they are planning to purchase during the next 12 months: personal computer/equipment at 106 and personal home electronics at 105. Millennials over-index for almost all of the 12 products in all five markets

It’s interesting to note in these four tables how much adult Esports fans and Millennial Esports fans over-indexed in many categories in Monterey-Salinas, CA, considering approximately 40% of its population is Latinx American.