The e-sport market - France (2024)

1.2 The global e-sports market

The global e-sports market is expected to experience strong growth through to ****, after a very slight dip in **** due to the Covid-** pandemic. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of **. *% between **** and ****, from $*** million to $*.*** billion[***].

In ****, global e-sports market revenues reached US$*.** billion, with growth of **.**% over ****.

E-sport market size World, ****-****, in millions of US$ Source: ****

Geographically, the most important e-sport markets are China, North America and Western Europe, which together account for **% of the sector's total revenue[***].

Breakdown of the e-sport market by geographic region World, ****, in % of total market size Source: ****

Turning to the breakdown of the e-sport market's revenue streams, we note that the main contributor to revenue is sponsorship, which accounts for almost **% of the sector as a whole, with $*** million in ****. Far behind sponsorship, media rights and publisher royalties are the other major contributors to industry revenues.

Sources of revenue for the e-sports market World, ****-****, in millions of US$ and % increase Source: ****

Growth in the e-sports audience is also very significant, with the global audience rising from just under *** million in **** to ***.* million in **** according to Newzoo estimates, representing average growth of *. *% between **** and ****. In ****, global e-sports audience growth was ...

1.3 E-sport in France: a promising market

Estimates for esport-related revenues in France reached around ** million euros in ****, marking growth of over ***% compared to ****.

Esport revenue trends in France France, ****-****, Million € Source: ****

The number of people involved in esport as consumers or practitioners grew dramatically between **** and ****, increasing from * million to **.* million, equivalent to an impressive average annual growth of **.**%.

evolution of the quantity of people engaged as consumers and participants in esports. France, ****-****, M€ Source: France Esport It is interesting to note thatthe growth in the number of consumers and practitioners was almost as great as the revenue generated

1.4 Impact of the Covid-19 crisis

While some assume that the pandemic has given e-sport a huge boost, this is not necessarily the case. Esport was an essential pastime for many consumers when the closures began, and traditional sports seasons were suspended while esport quickly adapted to the new environment and continued. The natural assumption for many is that e-sport must have benefited from the crisis. The reality, however, is that the sector has seen a mixed result.

On the one hand, video game streaming seems to have increased in the wake of the pandemic. If we take the interest in searching for the term "Twitch" on Google in France (***), we can see how the lockdown period led to a higher demand for streaming services.

Search interest for the term "Twitch" France, ****-****, Google trends index Source: ****

On the other hand, sporting competitions and events have been hard hit by the pandemic. With the government imposing containment measures to stem the spread of the virus, esports events could not be organized as they had been previously.

The entire esport event sector, which is so important to the discipline's economy, collapsed. Offline/physical competitions, which brought together thousands of spectators in venues such as the Bercy Arena, were ...

2.1 The growing popularity of e-sport in France

The number of e-sports consumers/practitioners in France has grown steadily over the years, rising from just over * million in **** to **.* million in ****, an average annual increase of **. *%[***].

E-sport consumers/practitioners France, ****-****, in millions of people Source: ****

The **.* million e-sport consumers/practitioners in **** represented **% of all French internet users aged ** or over - in ****, they represented just **%.

Of these **.* million consumers/practitioners, * million (***), *.* million are consumers and practitioners, while the remaining *.* million are only practitioners.

Breakdown of e-sport consumers/practitioners by type France, ****, as % of total Source: ****

The trend has been rather promising, with the number of consumers/practitioners increasing in all categories. The strongest growth has been in the leisure segment, which has almost doubled in the last two years

Growth in the number of esports consumers and practitioners France, ****-****, in thousands of people Source: ****

2.2 Esports consumers/players

Practitioners and consumers of e-sports and video games in France can be separated into different categories[***]:

General public players - Players who don't take part in competitions and don't have a ranking Leisure players - Players who have rankings, but do not play in competitions Amateur players - Players who have rankings and play in competitions

In ****, France had *.* million mainstream players, *.* million leisure players and * million amateur players. Public players represented **% of the total French population that year (***).

The number of leisure and amateur days increased significantly between **** and ****, but the number of general public gamblers fell between **** and ****, as the health crisis in France led to a sharp rise in the number of general public gamblers

In terms of player profiles, we can see that the gender split among traditional players is fairly balanced, with **% women and **% men. However, as esports players become more serious and competitive (***), the distribution becomes more unbalanced, with far more male than female players. For example, **% of amateur players are men.

What's more, most players are in the **-** age bracket. The trend is for the number of players in this age group to increase as they become more competitive

Profile of e-sport consumers, ...

2.3 French consumer habits

Esports consumers can be divided into different categories according to frequency of consumption:

Occasional users - less than once a month Regular users - between once a week and once a month Regular consumers - at least once a week

By ****, the number of esport fans had increased by *.* million. What's more, the frequency of their consumption also increased. Despite an increase of *** million occasional fans, they went from representing **% in **** to **% in ****. At the same time, the proportion of regular fans has risen from **% to **% in ****.

Frequency of e-sport consumption France, ****, in Source: ****

Consumption frequency also depends on the type of player. For example, mainstream gamers generally spend less time playing video games than amateur gamers. In fact, only **% of mainstream gam ers spent more than * hours watching video games during the week in which the study was carried out, compared with **% of leisure gamers and **% of hobby gamers

Time spent watching video games last week, by type of gamer France, ****, in % Source: ****

In terms of viewing, the trend is very similar to the above. Amateur gamers spend the most time streaming video games; **% of them spent more than * hours watching e-sports during the week in which this study was ...

2.4 The video games consumers stream

For mainstream gamers, the most-watched video game via streams is Fortnite, with **% of these gamers watching it. For hobby and leisure gamers, the most popular video game to watch is League of Legends. It's important to note that hobby gamers tend to watch several games, whereas traditional gamers watch very few games (***)[***].

Video games most streamed by mainstream gamers France, ****, in Source: ****

Most streamed video games by leisure gamers France, ****, in Source: ****

The video games most streamed by hobby gamers are League Of Legends (***).

Video games most streamed by amateur gamers France, ****, in Source: ****

3.1 The video game industry in its broadest sense

In ****, the video game sector saw a *. *% decrease on the previous year, reaching sales of *.* billion euros. This reduction is partly attributable to the impact of the confinements in ****/****, which had boosted the market considerably at the time, but also to the decline in household purchasing power due to inflation in ****, which didn't help the situation.

Value of the video game industry France, ****-****, € billion Source: ****

If we break down the industry's sales by the type of system used to play games, we can see that the largest share of sales was generated by the console ecosystem (***).

Remarkably, however, console ecosystem revenues fell by *.*% in ****, while the PC ecosystem grew by *.*% over the same period. As a result, console market share fell by around * points between **** and ****, to the benefit of the PC ecosystem, which saw its market share increase by * points.

Breakdown of video game sales France, ****, in Source: ****

In addition, there has been a notable shift in the way consumers migrate from purchasing physical versions of games, such as CDs, to buying digital versions. Indeed, as far as consoles are concerned, the share of dematerialized software purchases rose from **% in **** to **% in ****, while physical software purchases for consoles and ...

3.2 The French e-sport ecosystem

The French Esports association defines Esports as "any type of practice enabling players to compete against each other through video games". Esports practices can be separated according to the objectives of the players[***].

Source: ****

The diagram below shows how the esports ecosystem can be broken down [***].

3.3 E-sports competitions and streaming

After the crisis of COVID-**, when eSport competitions were mainly held online, the year **** has been marked by a progressive return of face-to-face competitions, although more than half of them still take place exclusively online.

Where do e-sports competitions take place? France, ****, as % of total Source: ****

In the period from **** to ****, we have seen a considerable increase in the proportion of online competitions, from **% to **%.

Evolution of the share of different circuits for e-sport competitions France, ****, in Source: ****

How e-sports are viewed depends on the profile of the players. For example, only**% of casual gamers attend e-sports events in personat least once a year, while this figure rises to **% among amateur gamers. When it comes to online streaming, the gap is even more pronounced, with **% of amateur players consuming e-sports streaming over the Internet at least once a week, compared to just *% of casual players[***].

Where do e-sport players watch streams? France, ****, in Source: ****

3.4 France's top teams and the world's most-watched competitions

Here's a compilation of the leading esport teams in France. Remarkably, many organizations have recently been created by popular Internet personalities, particularly on Twitch and YouTube. Examples include Squeezi and Gotaga for Gentlemate, Aegis with Mister MV, DFG and Shaunz, Karmine Korp with Kameto and Prime, and Job Life with JL Tomy.

TEAM VITALITY: Team Vitality is considered the largest French esport team playing internationally. Founded in ****, it has diversified to take part in games such as FIFA, Counter Strike, League of Legends, Rocket League and more. The team has over ** athletes and ** staff members. ANGEL'S WINGS: This team was founded in **** and initially focused on Counter Strike. Today, it is multigaming and has a recruitment approach focused on well-being and team cohesion. EMU LATE! : This team was a sensation on Counter Strike between **** and ****, winning back-to-back tournaments. However, difficulties with professionalization and internal tensions led to its breakup. TEAM GO (***) founded in ****, this team is active in popular games such as Hearthstone, League of Legends, Fortnite and Trackmania. It is renowned for its quality player recruitment and training. SOLARY: Solary is unique as a French WebTV dedicated to esports. It was founded in **** and holds financial independence, allowing it to ...

3.5 The Karmine Corp phenomenon

In this section, we'll look at the phenomenon that is Karmine Corp, a French esport club founded in **** by Kameto and Prime, two prominent Twitch and YouTube personalities. In a very short space of time, this organization has become a benchmark and model for the entire industry, backed by a considerable fan base.

Karmine Corp joins League of Legends "Champions League" for ** million euros:

La Karmine Corp, also known as "KCorp," a popular French e-sports club, is gearing up for a major turning point in ****. The club has announced its intention to join the European Championship (***) of League of Legends, one of the world's most popular competitive video games. This decision makes KCorp one of ten clubs in this prestigious league, alongside game franchises such as Dota *, Valorant and Counter-Strike.

The LEC operates on a pay-as-you-play franchise model, meaning that teams who have acquired a guaranteed place in the league do not risk promotion or relegation from a lower division. To join the LEC, Karmine Corp acquired the guaranteed place from Danish club Astralis, a transaction that will take place over several years, ultimately giving KCorp a **.**% stake in the guaranteed place. The price is estimated at ** million euros.

KCorp financed ...

4.1 The different platforms used

For esports competitions to take place, platforms/systems are needed where these games can be played. The main video game platforms are listed in the table below.

Source: ****

4.2 Types of video games

In ****, **.* million video games were sold on all platforms in France. The most popular video game genre in France is action (***)[***].

Distribution of video game sales by type France, ****, in Source: ****

As for the most popular games, Fifa ** was the leader for the whole combined market (***), while "Animal crossing: New horizons" was the best-selling physical game in ****. Below are the top ** best-selling video games in France in ****.

Best-selling video games France, ****, in thousands of sales (***) Source: ****

5.1 Regulations

What must an esport contract include?

The decree and the law for a Digital Republic establish rules for professional esport player contracts. These contracts must last at least one video game season (***) and can be renewed for a maximum of five years. However, fixed-term contracts of less than ** months are permitted under certain conditions, notably if they cover at least one entire video game season, or if they are used to replace a professional player in the event of absence or suspension. These provisions are designed to encourage the creation of teams for new games, for games where no existing team of the employer participates in the same competitive circuit, or for new positions within existing teams. Details on the start and end dates of video game seasons are specified by regulation.

The status of professional players

Since the Law for a Digital Republic, a salaried professional esport player is defined as any person remunerated for his or her participation in video game competitions, under the legal subordination of an association or company approved by the Minister for Digital Affairs. Decree no. *** of May *, **** frames this status, setting out the conditions for obtaining the approval required to employ professional video game ...

6.1 Segmentation

• Nintendo
• Electronic Arts
• Activision Blizzard
• Youtube
• Team Vitaly
• Gamers Origin
• GameWard
• Karmine Corp
• FaZe Clan
• Kinomap