Esports has a huge, enthusiastic audience.
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Esports viewership is up 100% in the U.S. over the past two years

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

The number of U.S. gamers who watch esports has grown 100 percent over two years, according to a national study by market researcher Frank N. Magid Associates.

The study showed that fans are into watching competitive video games such as the online strategy games League of Legends and Dota 2, team shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and card-battler Hearthstone. Esports has been a big phenomenon in Asia for years, but only now is starting to really break out in the West, Magid said. ESPN’s new esports effort this week and Activision Blizzard’s New Year’s acquisition of event organizer Major League Gaming show just how important esports is becoming to some of the biggest media companies in the world.

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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.