In recent years, the eSports market has experienced a remarkable surge, attracting an increasing number of viewers who eagerly tune in to spectate their favorite games played by top-notch gamers from around the globe. By 2025, it is anticipated that the global eSports community will exceed 318 million enthusiasts, marking a substantial rise from the 215.2 million recorded in 2020. Furthermore, it is projected that around 322.7 million individuals will be occasional viewers of eSports by 2025. The 2021 Free Fire World Series, an exhilarating Garena Free Fire tournament held in Singapore, holds the record for the most-watched eSports event to date. Millions of viewers were captivated as expert gamers fiercely battled it out, and it comes as no surprise that vast sums of money were at stake. The International 2021, the tenth iteration of the annual DOTA 2 world championship, featured an impressive combined prize pool exceeding 40 million U.S. dollars. Moreover, the cumulative prize pool for DOTA 2 tournaments worldwide in 2021 amounted to a staggering 47.8 million U.S. dollars.

Three of the most prominent live-streaming services worldwide are Twitch, Facebook gaming, and YouTube Live. According to stream charts for Twitch esports viewership, this platform takes first place with 5.79 billion hours of watch time in the third quarter of 2021. Estimated to generate 25 billion hours of live viewership in 2022, an all-time high for the platform. Youtube live have reported 5 billion hours in 2022 and Facebook gaming have witnessed 4,5 billion hours watched in 2022 (+28% Y/Y).

The average esports viewership and esports streamers in China rely on Huya, Douyin, Huomao, and PandaTV. China has become one of the largest live streaming markets, with 185.5 million viewers in 2020. Statistics analysts expect that by 2024, China will have 214.3 million people enjoying live streams.
League of Legends competitions have the biggest audience, with the League of Legends World Championship recording a 21.8 million Average Minute Audience (AMA) and 100 million viewers overall.