Esports Audience Analysis and Sponsorship Measurement of DreamHack Atlanta 2019

DreamHack Atlanta took place last weekend, which included competitions for some of esports top games. We wanted to understand which events, teams, brand sponsors, and audiences made up the conversation on social, and how much social value was generated.

We tracked all activity around the handles, hashtags, and phrases of DreamHack Atlanta 2019 from 11/15/19 – 11/17/19. Over the weekend, over 12K posts used the official #dreamhack hashtag. Impressions on posts about the event reached 351.4 million, helping generated an impression value of $1.8M and an engagement value of $150k .

With over 8 major esports tournaments, from the DreamHack Open to DreamHack Halo Series, we wanted to understand which events generated the most activity across social. The SMITE World Championships topped the list, with Tweets about the event generating over 56.8M impressions. This was followed by the DreamHack Halo Series and Paladins World Championships which generated 32.7M and 27.M impressions respectively.

Using Zoomph, we analyzed the audience of the conversation around DreamHack Atlanta 2019. An insight discovered was that people who engaged in the conversation around DreamHack 2019 were 2.4x more likely to have an affinity for T-Mobile than the average person interested in gaming. As a major non-endemic brand sponsor of many aspects of esports from the Overwatch League to Cloud9, T-Mobile has certainly been able to increase its awareness with esports audiences. 

Another audience insight discovered was that people who engaged in the conversation around DreamHack 2019 were 6.7x more likely to have an affinity for ASTRO Gaming than the average person interested in gaming. ASTRO Gaming was also a major sponsor of this year’s DreamHack, helping them increase their awareness with attendees who certainly fit their target market. 

When gauging the conversation around each event we tracked the event handles and hashtags, and tagged mentions of each team competing in the different tournaments. The most talked-about event over the weekend was the SMITE World Championship, where SK Gaming lead with over 18.9M impressions. This equated to a social value of over $105.3K for the team and their esports sponsors. Other teams generating major conversation on social included Team Rival and Dignitas with 9.5M and 4.7M impressions respectively. See the complete ranking of the teams generating the highest social value during DreamHack 2019’s SMITE World Championship below, or download the full report here

The tournament that generated the second greatest conversation on social was the DreamHack Halo Series, where Lux Gaming lead with over 8.5M impressions. This equated to a social value of over $46K for the team and their sponsors. Other teams generating major conversation on social included TOX Gaming with 7.4M impressions. See the complete ranking of the teams generating the highest social value during DreamHack 2019’s Halo Series below, or download the full report here

The third most talked-about event over the weekend was the Paladins World Championship, where Ninjas In PyJamas lead with over 12.2M impressions. This equated to a social value of over $166.7K for the team and their brand partners. Other teams generating major conversation on social included the Pittsburgh Knights and Team Envy with 5.4M and 4.1M impressions respectively. See the complete ranking of the teams generating the highest social value during DreamHack 2019’s Paladins World Championship below, or download the full report here

At Zoomph, we have a passion for using audience analysis to better understand what makes the best esports sponsorships work. For more about our process or to see how we could help you, give us a shout!

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