A handful of large, international companies are actively and visibly promoting themselves to tens of millions of gamers via e-sports. Still others are not doing so at all. "There are a lot of opportunities," says Jeremy Jackson of market analyst Newzoo.
Advertisers and sponsors seem to be ignoring audiences of millions internationally. There are people all over the world, young and old, who play games occasionally or more often. From entertaining pastime to competitive team play and everything in between. Yesterday Jackson told Emerce Performance in Amsterdam that few companies hardly use this channel for communication.

Almost everyone gamed.

"It's a misconception to think that only young boys up to age 23 are sitting at home in the basement gaming." He shows demographic figures, which indicate that every age group is represented from about evenly between the ages of 10 and, say, 60. Even the split between men and women is about 50/50. He does note, however, that engagement can vary greatly. One group prefers to watch games on Twitch or YouTube and another is casual gamer at night on the couch. Yet another gamed in teams or is more interested in the hardware.
Newzoo estimates the total gaming audience worldwide this year at 443 million. That's 100 million more than in 2017, but 150 million more will come by 2023.
"What companies need to do now is: orient themselves to this area and the audience in particular. In doing so, they should ask themselves what they can contribute contextually relevant. The public is open to approaching companies. Do you then want to bring your brand into the game or do you integrate a game into your brand and compare products?"
Jackson does indicate that there is still much to be gained for the gaming world in terms of onboarding advertisers. This is because it is difficult to measure the effect of campaigns in real time from the game environment.
Research by Newzoo shows that in 2019, there were 253 brands that were sponsors or advertisers in international esports competitions. "Sixty-one percent of them are not substantively affiliated with the game. Last year it was 55 percent." Most of the companies are general advertisers, not game-related parties. "It is especially striking how many gaps there are in our matrices. Empty fields that illustrate how many commercial opportunities go unfilled."
Source: Emerce.