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Nielsen dives into esports market research

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

Nielsen made its name measuring the TV and media business, making it measurable for advertising. Now it is announcing Nielsen Esports, a new business focused on competitive gaming.

The esports industry is expected to generate $696 million in 2017 (according to market researcher Newzoo), but that is far smaller than traditional sports. One of the big differences between esports and traditional sports is broadcast revenues. And one of the keys to boosting broadcast revenues is measuring the reach of the broadcast properly, said Greg Richardson, CEO of esports Team Dignitas (owned by the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team), in an interview with GamesBeat. Nielsen’s entry into this business is part of the quest for esports to reach greater legitimacy and higher revenues.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.