Loadout

At Loadout, we use our own proprietary study, powered by GWI, to develop a clear picture of how different esports & gaming fans view themselves. The detailed profiling capability contained in Loadout Esports & Gaming allows the most passionate and engaged fans to be identified. Here, we take a look at Team Liquid's fans, what sets them apart, and how this identity is reflected in the esport's organization's partnerships.

Most esports tournaments have to compete not only for viewers attention from other forms of media, but also with other, unofficial, broadcasts of their own tournaments. When investigating esports obsessives using Loadout Proprietary Esports & Gaming data, we can see that for most serious fans the official broadcast is still preferable, but there's a sizable proportion who generally like to watch the streamers they already know and love. This presents a challenge to tournament organisers, and Loadout Esports & gaming data can help you understand the motivations of these viewers. How do you think official broadcasts can best attract viewers back?

Not all people who play games every day think of themselves as a "gamer". Traditionally, gaming data and marketing has focussed on targeting the most frequent players with campaigns that play on the idea of a self identifying group of gamers. But, Loadout data helps us show that there are many different types of gamers - and not everybody will be enticed by the same types of marketing. Having the right data on gamers will help you understand the size of the opportunity in gaming accurately, and target the gamers who matter to you. Do you identify as a gamer? Why? Why not?

While all esports titles have a majority male player base, new titles like Valorant & Fortnite have done a much better job at attracting, and retaining, female players. According to our proprietary Loadout Esports & Gaming Data, powered by GWI, nearly half of Valorant players are women! How have these newer titles managed to make their communities, and games, more welcoming to women? Can older titles learn anything from them?

So much of the discourse around gaming centres around the idea of competition. Gamers are presented as ultra competitive honed winning machines, who focus their lives around the singular pursuit of besting others. The products marketed to them make claims about how they'll assist in this goal; high performance energy drinks, tech that offers small % increases in accuracy and clothing that boasts of their prowess. But most gamers don't engage in serious competitive play at all, with Loadout data showing that over half of all gamers never play online ranked games. This doesn't make all of these players 'casual', or unengaged in gaming. In fact, 37% of non-ranked players still say that gaming is important to them, or the main part of their life (admittedly lower than the 67% of ranked players). What can be done to make sure brands engage with all types of gamers?

So much of the discourse around gaming centres around the idea of competition. Gamers are presented as ultra competitive honed winning machines, who focus their lives around the singular pursuit of besting others. The products marketed to them make claims about how they'll assist in this goal; high performance energy drinks, tech that offers small % increases in accuracy and clothing that boasts of their prowess. But most gamers don't engage in serious competitive play at all, with Loadout data showing that over half of all gamers never play online ranked games. This doesn't make all of these players 'casual', or unengaged in gaming. In fact, 37% of non-ranked players still say that gaming is important to them, or the main part of their life (admittedly lower than the 67% of ranked players). What can be done to make sure brands engage with all types of gamers?

At Loadout, we believe that the commercial power of gaming & esports fans isn't limited to gaming. Gamers are a powerful commercial segment and understanding how to best reach them is becoming increasingly important. Using Loadout Esports & Gaming, powered by GWI, it's easy to demonstrate the sectors that gaming and esports fans cross over into. Esports Obsessives are 18% more likely to consider buying a car in the next 2 years. All our data shows that good will is granted to brands that support esports, so is it time for another car brand to sponsor a major event?

Using Loadout Esports & Gaming data, powered by GWI, we're able to create clear segmentations of the global esports fanbase. We class 6% of the 16-64 Online population in the 16 markets we cover as "esports obsessives" (a subset of esports fans). This means they frequently tune into games, watch for long periods of time and consider themselves very interested in esports overall. Overall, nearly 51% of the online population hold some interest in esports. While they may not all watch every day, or know much about the top players and teams, there's potential to turn this large casual fanbase into passionate viewers as esports matures. How can esports continue to grow and convert fans into obsessives?

The second in our series of article for Esports Insider detailing how the modern world of esports looks. Today, we're showing a demographic and attitudinal overview of esports fans. This shows elements of the esports fandom which you'll find familiar and other which might surprise you! Remember, not all esports fans are visible and consumer data allows us to understand the totality of a fanbase. If you're interested in delving deeper into esports with data, get in touch! https://lnkd.in/eiCvu7Nx

Loadout and GWI will be providing Team Liquid with gaming and esports audience data! Check out our announcement to learn more.