Fnatic and Nielsen study esports ROI

British eSports organization Fnatic in collaboration with the North American company Nielsen for measurement and data analysis Sports & Entertainment have prepared a report which provided an analysis of return on investment in e-sports.

ROI, in simple terms, is the return on investment itself. This is a widely used financial metric that many companies use to understand how much return you can make on a particular investment. This is especially important for brands that invest in sponsorships or partnerships with sports and esports rights holders who want to reap the rewards.

George Meade, director of partnerships at Fnatic: "This research proves what we at Fnatic already knew: esports pushes the boundaries of what partnerships entail for big brands, allowing all participants to generate mutual brand growth with a leading ROI that continues to grow year on year. Esports is the medium of today and tomorrow that helps brands communicate meaningfully with Gen Z and Y in a dialect they understand to create intimacy with them."

As part of the collaboration, Nielsen Sports & Entertainment has provided a methodology that is recognized as the industry's global standard for measuring profitability, based on robust and reliable data analysis.

The study analyzed the ROI of esports sponsors across four key areas: media exposure and reach, activation and engagement, brand impact, and business impact.

Fnatic and Nielsen Sports & Entertainment came to the following conclusions from the study:

• The average return on investment in media sponsored by Fnatic was higher (4.5 times) than sponsoring traditional sporting events and high-level teams.
• The use of digital tools in esports can increase brand awareness comparable to or better than traditional sports. Esports offers significant benefits for building brand awareness.
• Sponsors create positive sentiment among esports fans.
• Leading esports teams in the LEC are growing subscribers by approximately 11% - 17.4% per year.
• On video hosting sites, Fnatic (0.73%) outperformed most traditional sports industry rights holders in terms of engagement, including Formula 1 (0.38%) and Premier League (0.32%) teams.
• Top teams in the LEC have more than doubled the ROI for their sponsors from 2019 (2.1x) to today (4.5x) as a result of ecosystem growth, audience growth and improvements to the esports product itself.

The study also showed esports audience growth of 10-20% per year, with live stream consumption increasing by 69% globally last year. In addition, demand for livestream sponsored audiences on platforms such as Twitch has grown over 98% since 2020.