China and the US lead over Korea in terms of esports revenues following a collapse of the Korean esports market in the period 2008 to 2012, a fact known to insiders but overseen by many. Prize money made available worldwide has almost doubled in the first five months of 2015 compared to the same period last year. At this pace, total prize money will reach $71 million this year. Key findings are presented below in more detail including two graphs on the state of eSports this year.

eSports Audience Revenues PrizeMoney

- The US houses the fastest growing audience, with an 21% growth of total viewers regardless of frequency and 37% year-on-year increase in eSports Enthusiasts. Awareness of the eSports phenonomen increased with 16%.

- Across the 16 countries investigated, esports viewer numbers have increased 6% since our identical research in 2014. Interestingly, the group of Occasional Viewers shows a slight decline with the number of Enthusiasts growing by 31%. This points to a migration of casual to engaged viewers, and an overall increase in the intensity of eSports engagement.

- This is a trend that we originally predicted in our first Global Growth of Esports Report published at the start of this year. It now seems that Enthusiasts might be outgrowing Occasional Viewers even faster than we anticipated. We will be investigating this possibility in the lead up to the quarterly update of our Global Growth of eSports Report Premium service in September, and adjust our estimates and projections towards 2018 if necessary.

- At this moment, we maintain our 2015 estimate for the global number of eSports Enthusiasts at 113 million with another 147 million watching occasionally, comparable to traditional sports viewers who only tune in for a national or world championship.

Prize Money On Pace To Double That of 2014:

- The global prize pool for eSports totaled $15.7 million in the first five months of this year, a 97% increase from the same period in 2014. Last year’s prize money totaled $36.0 million for the full year. At this pace, the 2015 global prize pool will grow to $71.0 million.

- Last year, Valve’s DOTA 2 championship, The International, had a huge impact on overall prize money as it succeeded to crowdsource the majority of its $10 million. This year, it already has surpassed this mark and could be heading towards a record-breaking $15 million pay-out for a single event.

- While this dramatic increase in prize money is a strong indicator of growing revenues, it is also a sign of anticipated revenues in the future and should not be directly related to eSports revenues generated by its economy. Publishers are contributing to prize pools with the belief that their investment into esports will lead to a larger future ROI.