EPT
The Korea Creative Content Agency and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism did a survey to investigate the e-sports user behaviour to support the industry and policy makings and to spot the new trends. Their statistical results have been published in the “2013 e-sports Survey Report”.
The contents of the report are e-sports organizations, e-sports tournaments, e-sports programme, e-sports Media, e-sports Events, foreign e-sports etc, overall e-sports industry condition regarding the findings in pro/ amateur gamer, community membership, tournament viewers etc. Roughly 5700 e-sports users participated in the survey.
The preferred Mediums for watching e-sports 1. PC (39%) 2. Smartphone (28.8%) 3. TV (28.2%). This shows that the trend is away from TV to other mediums.
Over 70% of the asked e-sports users are active in an e-sports related community. In the sub category related to community 72,2% said that they are active in a community because it increases the loyalty to the game. 67,8% said that they are active in a community because they can direct view and be in connection with others. 61,2% stated to increase playtime frequency. This shows that the e-sports industry and community activity have a close connection to each other.
In the e-sports live attending environment the most important and desired things to improve are to increase the capacity of viewers in their arenas (11,6%) followed by reducing the amount of time in a queue (5,6%), to provide a rest room or a waiting area before the match starts (4,6%). But most of the survey takers said that they don’t like the first come first serve model.
Questions regarding the difficulties being a progamer 38,9% stated an uncertain future which they have the highest rate of military service (16,7%) and the troubles to maintain a level one can survive on (16,7%) followed by that plans are needed to secure a stable life.
With the end of the starcraft 1 proleague program the amount of progamer shrank (T/N: most LoL progamer are not KeSPA officially acknowledged progamer) and the budget cuts to e-sports related governments shrank the size of the e-sports industry respectively.
Besides these reductions the diversity in medium which allow watching e-sports (Cable TV, Internet program, mobile app etc.) the increase in viewers of e-sports(30 years male increase), the success to monetize attending e-sports events (sold out LoL finals). The changes in the e-sports market showed that there is growth potential in the market.
the e-sports market was formerly represented by Starcraft 1 but League of Legends emerged as the new main event. LoL was able to break the former “free attending system” and was able to sell out their finals in 2013. In addition fans who couldn’t come to the finals location sold out cinemas to watch the live broadcast there. This shows that e-sports live coverage can be successful monetized.
Source: Kocca
Full report can be found here.
