ESport, more than one million Italians love electronic sports

In Italy there are 350 thousand people (defined as avid fans) who follow esports events every day

All crazy for eSport! This is confirmed by a report made by AESVI, the Association of the video game industry in Italy, together with Nielsen. In Italy, in fact, there are 350 thousand people (defined as avid fans) who follow esports events every day. A catchment area that reaches about 1,200,000 people if we think of those who say they follow an event several times a week (called, instead, esports fans).

A constantly growing phenomenon that, in the last year, has seen its sector defined with greater concreteness. We're talking about events organized down to the smallest detail, such as Milan Games Week, which dedicated an entire pavilion to e-sports.

"In 2018, we created a permanent observatory on the phenomenon of competitive gaming together with Nielsen to have a privileged observation point on its evolution. We want to make our contribution to the development of the esports ecosystem in Italy, working at the forefront to make our country increasingly important and competitive at the international level" - said Marco Saletta, president of AESVI.

Who are the main users of esport? 62% of them are men, with a medium-high level of education and an age between 21 and 30 years old (44%), but also between 31 and 40 years old (38%). 25% of esports fans have become interested in the world in the past year alone. 79% of this category engage in this passion for entertainment or to pass the time. 67%, on the other hand, follow the performances of proplayers to improve their personal skills.

The most followed video games by avid fans include FIFA (47%), Call of Duty (44%) and League of Legends (34%). Of this category, 45% follow Call of Duty World League while 31% follow FIFA Global Series. Among the most used devices to follow esports events are Personal Computers (62%) and Smartphones (45%). While to play games, 81% use smartphones, 77% use consoles and 76% use computers.