Joint Report by IDC and Esports Charts Finds Twitch Livestreaming Hours Watched Have Nearly Doubled and Esports Tournament Hours Watched Have ...

Joint Report by IDC and Esports Charts Finds Twitch Livestreaming Hours
      Watched Have Nearly Doubled and Esports Tournament Hours Watched Have
      Risen >2x Since the COVID-19 Pandemic Hit

                   FRAMINGHAM, Mass., and NEW YORK, July 8, 2020 –
                   International Data Corporation (IDC), the premier global
                   provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events
                   for the information technology, telecommunications, and
                   consumer technology markets, and Esports Charts, the multi-
                   sense big data-mining and analytical agency for esports,
                   traditional sports, and entertainment, and one of the largest
                   public sources of streaming analytics in the world, today
                   released a joint report detailing the apparent effects of the
                   COVID-19 outbreak and pandemic on Amazon's Twitch
                   platform and on esports tournament streaming generally.
                   The report, The COVID-19 Pandemic's Effects on Esports
                   and Livestreaming, provides a particularly granular view into
                   Twitch livestreaming results from September 2019 through
                   May 2020.

                   Highlights from the report include:

•   Using last December's livestreamed hours watched as a baseline, Twitch
    hours viewed in May were up 99% (1.72 billion vs. 867 million hours watched
    worldwide).
•   Across Twitch's 15 most consistently popular games from September 2019
    to May 2020, a list topped by League of Legends, Fortnite, Counter-Strike:
    Global Offensive, Grand Theft Auto V, and Dota 2, total hours watched spiked
    88% between last December and this May, and these same top 15 most
    consistently popular games represented close to half (48%) of global Twitch
    hours watched since the beginning of this year.
•   Across 15 comparable tournaments that were reviewed in the pre- and post-
    pandemic periods (i.e., LCK 2019 Spring and LCK 2020 Spring), hours
    watched were up 114% in the post-pandemic period and the average number
    of viewers increased by two thirds.
•   A survey of nearly 13,000 PC gamers fielded last September revealed that
    hardcore Chinese gamers weren't just more likely than their counterparts in
    the U.S., Germany, Brazil, and Russia to watch esports videos, hardcore PC

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gamers in China were more likely to make gameplay videos and play in an
esports tournament as well.

               "Given the developing nature of
               both esports and streaming, we
               are very happy to be collaborating
               with IDC to bring factual data
               to the forefront of the market.
               Having analyzed the impacts of
               COVID-19, we are confident that
               the industry as a whole may be
               better informed and prepared to
               react to future occurrences of this
               scope," said Artyom Odintsov,
               CEO of Esports Charts. "While the
               number of total hours watched has
               consistently risen for tournaments
               across this period, uncertainty
               regarding physical events is yet
               apparent. As the esports and
               streaming industries continue to
               expand and develop, we will be
               very interested to see how they will
               be impacted in the long term by
               both COVID-19 and other market
               factors."

               "Something that I think is easy to
               overlook in the Twitch results is
               that multiplatform games, by which
               we mean games that are playable
               on PCs and/or game consoles
               and/or mobile devices, have
               significantly outperformed PC-only
               titles since the pandemic hit," said
               Lewis Ward, research director,
               Gaming and AR/VR research at
               IDC. "Among the top 15 most
               consistently popular games, for
               example, 55% of Twitch hours
               watched last December were
               multiplatform games and this
               share increased to 62% in May.
               The combination of Twitch's

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popularity in North America and
Western Europe, the popularity
of multiplatform games in these
regions, and the massive impact
that COVID-19 stay-at-home
orders have had on people
in these regions since March
explains the bulk of this change,
but if this trend doesn't reverse
over time, it could have important
implications for game publishers
as well as esports tournament and
league operators."

The report includes the results
of two surveys fielded online last
September. The first was fielded to
adult PC gamers in five countries
(the United States, China,
Germany, Brazil, and Russia) with
per country responses totaling
2,500 to 2,800. The second was
fielded to 7,500 adult and teen
gamers in the U.S. The results
of the latter survey showed that
U.S. esports fans were 72% male
and gamers who weren’t esports
fans skewed female by a narrow
majority; esports fans averaged 10
years younger in age than gamers
who weren’t esports fans; and
that PC esports fans were almost
twice as likely to play on a branded
gaming PC compared to the typical
PC gamer.

More information on the report
and the full study are available at
https://bit.ly/2NODlpE.

About IDC

International Data Corporation
(IDC) is the premier global

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provider of market intelligence,
advisory services, and events
for the information technology,
telecommunications, and
consumer technology markets.
With more than 1,100 analysts
worldwide, IDC offers global,
regional, and local expertise
on technology and industry
opportunities and trends in over
110 countries. IDC's analysis and
insight helps IT professionals,
business executives, and the
investment community to make
fact-based technology decisions
and to achieve their key business
objectives. Founded in 1964,
IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary
of International Data Group
(IDG), the world's leading tech
media, data and marketing
services company. To learn
more about IDC, please visit
www.idc.com. Follow IDC on
Twitter at @IDC and LinkedIn.
Subscribe to the IDC Blog for
industry news and insights: http://
bit.ly/IDCBlog_Subscribe.

About Esports Charts

Esports Charts collects,
researches, processes, and
analyzes data and statistics of
live tournaments, real-time in-
game events, players’/teams’
performance, and even spectator
reactions and emotional contexts.
Esports Charts’ statistics make
esports more honest and clear
and helps sponsors, organizers,
and viewers to find out the
degree of popularity of any

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broadcast and esports event.
            Being socially responsible, the
            company takes part in educational
            and non-commercial projects
            and programs, comprehensively
            helping to develop the esports
            market.

IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology
media, research, and events company. Additional information
can be found at www.idc.com. All product and company
names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective holders.

For more information contact:
Michael Shirer
press@idc.com
508-935-4200
Daniel Shraibman
partnership@escharts.com
646-280-0761

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