This is a special report for Skewed and Reviewed by Laura Albert
The New Gaming Trend That Shouldn’t Be Ignored
It’s been over a decade since I owned a video game console. When there was a group playing I remember patiently waiting for a turn. Watching others play was not at all entertaining or interesting. I would be counting down the lives, turns, or levels until it was again my turn to play.
Years later, much to my surprise, watching others play video games is turning into a gaming phenomenon and the popularity of this new trend is taking life in the U.S. Sites like Twitch and YouTube gaming see millions of unique views each month, which would make any advertiser excited, and eSports as a whole has become a multibillion dollar industry. So what can we learn about the people who watch others playing video games?
In the summer of 2015, CivicScience polled over 10,000 respondents on how closely they are following live or recorded videos on Twitch or YouTube Gaming. The report found 12% of people 13 and older very or somewhat closely follow live or recorded gaming videos. That is a sizable portion of people in the U.S. taking part in this growing trend. CivicScience went on to profile likely viewers or the “video game spectators” in order to learn more about who is participating in this gaming trend.
First, let’s take a look at the video game spectators’ gaming habits.
Level One – Gaming Habits:
- 66% often watch YouTube video game commentators like PewDiePie, Markiplier, or others.
- 61% play video games daily and 17% play weekly, which should not be at all surprising.
- 53% of the video game spectators play first-person shooter or other multi-player video games daily or weekly.
- 34% are likely to purchase a virtual reality (“VR”) headset in order to enhance their game play.
- 51% prefer to play games on a PC, whereas 44% prefer to play on a gaming console. So any computer games rank higher among the spectators.
By comparing the video game spectators to the general U.S. population, we can uncover how these individuals differ from the average consumer on topics like demographics, entertainment, personality traits and favored brands.
Level Two – Demographics:
The video game spectators are 2.5X more likely to be 24 and under and well over half (61%) are men. There is a higher likelihood that they are living with their parents, which could be due to their younger age.
Level Three – Entertainment and Media Consumption:
- Video game spectators are more than 2X as likely as the general population to primarily watch TV via online streaming services, which could explain why they are 52% more likely to love Netflix.
- And continuing on the online streaming path, they are 33% more likely to listen to Pandora.
Spectators are fans of all things streaming – whether it’s for TV shows, movies, music, or gaming videos.
Level Four – Shopping Habits and Favored Brands:
- Video game spectators are slightly more likely (14%) to try new products before others and are slightly more likely (6%) to tell others about new brands or technology. So they are slightly more likely to be market mavens – early adopters and product evangelizers.
- They are 59% more likely to be most influenced by comments on social media rather than TV or internet ads when it comes to their purchases.
Any discussions around new products or technology on social media or sites like Twitch is likely to influence spectators’ purchases. What brands do gaming spectators favor? They have a higher favorability of food and restaurant brands – Chex cereal snacks, Honey Bunches of Oats, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Lean Cuisine to name a few.
Level Five – Personality Traits
Let’s dig into the psychographics of spectators. They admire creative ideas and are more likely to be hesitant in their decision making. Spectators are also 25% more likely to believe abandoning a good idea too quickly is more problematic than sticking with a bad idea for too long.
Game Over
Although I was a noob when it came to this gaming trend and was surprised by its popularity, there’s no denying that it is taking off in the U.S. Many are tuning in to sites like Twitch or YouTube Gaming to get tips and tricks on how to improve their gaming skills. Spectators tend to be younger men who enjoy online streaming services, are influenced by social media and people like PewDiePie, and are slightly more likely to be early adopters. It’s a new opportunity for advertisers to take advantage of and it seems that this gaming trend won’t be dying out any time soon.
About the CivicScience Methodology
CivicScience collects real-time consumer research data via polling applications that run on hundreds of U.S. publisher websites, cycling through thousands of active questions on any given day. Respondents for this report were weighted for U.S. Census representativeness for gender and age, 13 years and older, and data was collected from non-incented opt-in respondents answering poll sessions from June 29, 2015 through September 9, 2015.
