E-sports makes $612M from its 134M viewers worldwide, SuperData finds

Young guys with a lot of money are watching e-sports, and this is turning it into a market of its own.

Competitive gaming is a $621 million business, according to intelligence firm SuperData Research. That money primarily comes from Asian markets like South Korea and China, where the e-sports scene is huge and has an established history of success. But it’s also growing in Europe and North America thanks to popular games like League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. In addition to the money, e-sports fans around the world number in the 134 million range. But even as more money and people pour into this space, SuperData founder and chief analyst Joost van Dreunen argues that it is still a marketing tool for publishers before anything else.