Streaming Demand of eSports: Analysis of Counter Strike:Global Offensive

Nowadays, the eSports industry is developing at a rapid pace, although a few years ago tournaments were organized in small computer clubs. The development of streaming services such as Twitch, Youtube Live, which are also the main channel for broadcasting events, played an important role in this leap and greatly contributed to the rise in popularity of electronic sports. Despite this success, there has been no research on the topic of streaming demand of eSports to date, in contrast to traditional sports, which have been of primary interest to researchers for decades. This paper aims to fill the gap and use attendance-based demand approach of traditional sports to analyze the streaming demand of eSports on the example of the game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The analysis was conducted based on the information collected from two eSports related website which track the viewership rates from streaming platforms and collect data about matches, events, organizations, rosters. Main findings indicate that eSports enthusiasts value factors such as quality of tournament, match quality and individual skill of the athletes when watching matches. In addition, the obtained results reveal that viewers of streaming broadcasts of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive admire the Uncertainty of Outcome and choose to watch those games in which there is a high level of competitiveness between the participants. Current research contributes to the existing eSports literature with new frameworks for analyzing streaming demand. Practical implications, as well as limitations and propositions for the future, are included.