As advertisers grow wiser about gaming, esports companies are stressing community over metrics

As brands and marketers become more familiar with esports, they’re less likely to be wowed by the sector’s flashy productions and high viewership. To keep sponsors interested, esports companies are leaning into soft metrics such as community engagement over viewership and the other traditional forms of measurement — for better or worse.

Esports companies might be struggling to turn a profit in 2024 — but esports, as a form of entertainment, is still growing steadily. Between 2022 and 2023, hours of competitive gaming content watched online increased by 160 million, according to Stream Hatchet’s annual esports viewership report. Interest in tentpole esports events such as February’s Six Invitational has also grown year-over-year, reflected in both rising ticket sales and ballooning streaming numbers — and yet none of this growth seems to be moving the needle with brands, which have only become more wary about committing marketing dollars to the space.

“It’s not that people have got smarter per se — maybe some have — I think it’s that now they’re in a position where they actually need to interrogate this more, because it’s not the shiny new thing,” said Malph Minns, managing director of the agency Strive Sponsorship.

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