Already 16 million Poles play computer games, and the value of the domestic market is estimated at nearly USD 600 million. E-sports competitions also have an increasing audience. In 2020, e-sport was watched by nearly 500 million people worldwide, and the Twitch platform for streaming gaming and e-sport struggles more than doubled the viewership.
This attracts not only sponsors to these industries, but also traditional sports clubs and influencers. The potential in e-sport has also been noticed by the media, which launch more and more programs and channels on this subject. A completely new quality in this market, however, is to be the VTV television, which is just starting to combine gaming and e-sport with lifestyle content, e.g. interviews or reviews.
- In Poland, the gaming market grew by 12 percent during the pandemic. This is very high growth and a considerable amount. The entire global gaming market is now worth around $ 146 billion, which is twice as much as music and film combined. It is also amazing that – despite the great tragedy which was the pandemic for the global economy – the gaming and e-sports market has grown significantly. Twitch, the main streaming platform, has more than doubled viewership, so the demand for content and content related to gaming and e-sports has increased – emphasizes Wojciech Krzemień, president of Hivemind SA, the broadcaster of VTV, in an interview with the news agency Newseria Biznes.
E-sport creates a wide range of product placement opportunities, which attracts sponsors, equipment manufacturers, game developers, as well as traditional sports clubs and leagues. In Poland, an example is the Ekstraklasa Games tournament, organized by the football Ekstraklasa, among others in collaboration with the publisher of Fify, EA Sports. The potential in e-sport has also been noticed by traditional media, as evidenced by e.g. Polsat Games channel, dedicated to, among others League of Legends games, or the signing of a contract by TVP Sport for broadcasting with the international league of ESL games.