The world of esports and cryptocurrencies have been crossing paths for quite a while. Mostly recently we’ve seen an acceleration of the intermingling in both industries. Cryptocurrency is becoming more and more linked to esports in the form of sponsorships, teams issuing their own currencies, and even crypto games.
It seems like this increased crossover has growing support among esports fans. According to a recent survey, the number of esports fans buying cryptocurrency has increased this year.
Once G2 fans start buying crypto the market will collapse
Esports fan investments in cryptocurrency increases
Recent polls by YouGov state that esports fans in the UK who intend to buy cryptocurrency have risen dramatically in the last year. Fans who said they wanted to buy crypto within the next year have increased by 10 points, rising significantly. A much bigger increase than we’ve seen in previous years.
More specifically, esports fans in the UK are much more likely to be willing to cease using fiat and switch to crypto altogether. That’s 37% of esports fans versus only 6% of the general population. That is a huge shift in perception in only 12 months.
In terms of the general public, this rise hasn’t been quite as sharp. For seeing crypto as the future of finance, 52% of esports fans are in agreement and only 18% of the general population are. All these facts show that esports fans are considerably more favorable to cryptocurrency than the general public. However, another portion of the survey also illustrated this divide. Esports fans are 52% likely to view finance as confusing compared to only 36% of the general public.
All of these statistics are coming from surveys from YouGov. They are of the UK’s leading polling companies so you can be assured that this is a survey that had a decent sample size.
Cryptocurrencies that esports fans buy
Alongside the research that showed esports fans buying cryptocurrency is more likely than the general public, we’ve also got data on what cryptocurrencies have been used by them. There are loads of different cryptocurrencies each with its own pros and cons. This is how the cryptos break down in terms of popularity with the percentage of them that have used them:
- Bitcoin – 6%
- Monero – 4%
- Ethereum – 4%
- Ripple – 3%
- Binance Coin – 3%
- Litecoin – 3%
- Komodo – 3%
- Verge 3%
One big shock might be Monero sitting in second place, just tied with Ethereum. Ethereum is by far the second-largest coin, but it seems not with esports fans buying cryptocurrency. Others like Litecoin and Bitcoin aren’t much of a surprise. The inclusion of Binance Coin makes sense too since that’s necessary to purchase most of the smaller cap coins.
These results are definitely encouraging for anyone hoping to see more of cryptocurrency in esports. That esports fans are more likely to purchase crypto than the general public is encouraging for the increasing number of teams and other companies working on cryptocurrency projects and sponsorships. Although, the correlation between those who find finance confusing and those who like cryptocurrency is definitely an interesting statistic too.
Rising interests across the board
UK is not the only market where cryptocurrencies and esports are having an increase in favorability. The rise of play-to-earn and crypto gaming has made an overall pull on gamers toward all crypto related products. An estimated 300 million big esports audience most of whom are gamers themselves, are causing a massive quake in the crypto world. With both industries seeing growth this year, the sale of tokens and gaming NFTs may see unprecedented changes in value.
Research firm L’Atelier said trading in NFTs hit $17.6 billion last year, reflecting an eye-watering 21,000% surge from 2020’s total of $82 million. Both the US and China are seeing a sharp rise in interest despite regulatory uncertainty. While esports collectibles are still only a fraction of this market, we are seeing growth across the board aligning with the all the data that esports fans are buying into cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies en masse.