The case of League of Legends Worlds 2019
On Sunday, November 10, the world's biggest esports event was held at the Accor Hotel Arena in Paris. Indeed, the Parisian capital saw the Chinese of Fun Plus Phoenix competing against the Germans of G2 Esports on the flagship license of the video game publisher Riot Games, League of Legends. Although the European team lost a severe 3-0, the subject of esports is still a growing subject, as evidenced by the 20,000 people in the room. We talk a lot about the exceptional growth of esports in the years to come but here is an opportunity to look at a competition with global resonance after our articles on events related to the streamer Zerator, the Zlan And the zEvent.
What is the reputation of the event?
The event was talked about on the French audiovisual level (radio and television). Our partner Mediatree actually noted 162 TV and radio mentions on 26 channels (21 TV & 5 radios) on the day of the event. The day after the event, 21 mentions on 6 channels (3 TVs and 3 radios) were also recorded.
On social networks and on digital in general at the global level, no less than 339,000 pieces of content relating to the event were thus published on the web on the day of the final. The majority of the content was published on two platforms with Twitter, which accounts for 75% of this content, and the Chinese social network Sina Weibo, for 19%.
The Chinese esports community is indeed very active and numerous, as evidenced by this Content by Chinese actor Zhu Wilong invited by the Louis Vuitton brand (creating the cup box) and which generated 1.5 million social actions (reactions, comments and shares):
The event also enjoyed an average audience of 1.1M viewers on Twitch (from 12 to 5 pm):
What is the French audience for League of Legends?
The League of Legends audience in France is very male (80%) and quite young (83% aged 18-34). The most representative fields of activity are IT, IT and Technical Services. This audience generally has a higher level of education than the French average (compared to the French average +17% of the audience has a university degree).
It is interesting to note that the League of Legends audience is provincial (many fans in the Lyon, Toulouse and Bordeaux regions). This audience is multi-device and uses the computer AND the mobile. We must therefore not forget the computer in brands' digital activation plans.
By watching the content that this audience is interested in, we decided to look at the most popular brands. We focused our analysis on brands that are not endemic to the video game industry because the interest in endemic brands (i.e. linked to video games like LDLC/ROCCAT/...) is generally very high.
The first non-endemic brand whose League of Legends audience shows the greatest interest is Orangina. French League of Legends audience is almost 3 times more likely to like Orangina content than any other Facebook user
The following brands are in the top 5:
- Orangina
- Lion Cereals
- Vivelle DOP
- Axe
- pepsi
What exposure and valorization of partner brands?
If for “traditional” sports, sponsors are highlighted via the panel on the edge of the field, we find the equivalent during this League of Legends final. Indeed, during the matches (3 matches), the partners of the event were highlighted in a dedicated space at the bottom left of the screen:
Redbull, Axe gaming, Oppo, Mastercard, Alienware and Secret Lab were thus highlighted. Also highlighted were Riot games, the version of the patch used for the final and the Worlds logo during the replays. Based on the effective playing time of the 3 games (G1:40min, G2:40min, G2:25min and G3:30min) we calculated the exposure time of brand logos (excluding breaks, replays and double screen effects).
We then linked these exposure times to the average number of League of Legends viewers on Twitch during the final in order to estimate the valuation of this exposure for brands. This valuation was weighted by the size of the space dedicated to brands visible on the screen.
It was therefore Redbull that enjoyed the longest exposure time (2min 43s longer than Alienware) and therefore the most significant valuation. We also carried out this exercise for each of the 3 games with the average Twitch audience during them:
The brands thus accumulated an estimated valuation of €1.4M for the gaming phases alone. Their exposure during the opening ceremony and between the games would further inflate this result. The various brands were able to benefit from at least 10 minutes of effective in-game exposure in front of an average audience of 1.5 million viewers, which is higher than the recent audiences of Téléfoot (800K) or the Canal Football Club (700K).
Article written with Jeremy Danulot.
