Nielsen-owned SuperData, a market research company for digital games, has launched a new platform that measures online gaming viewership and streaming return on investment to determine sponsorship valuation for brands across the esports industry.
The SuperData Arena Dashboard analyses performance-data metrics to help companies make more informed sponsorship decisions. The tool analyzes data such as the number of hours streamed and watched, as well as the average concurrent viewers and channel followers across popular esports streaming sources like Twitch and YouTube. Clients can consume this data to determine the industry’s most popular game titles, individual streamers, and track the performance of major esports events.
“Watching games online has quickly become one of the most popular forms of interactive entertainment with many games video titles and esports events now generating audiences that rival traditional media content,” said Joost van Dreunen, co-founder of SuperData, in a press release. “The new SuperData Arena dashboard offers brands and publishers the ability to have a combined view of gaming video streaming data metrics with game sales data. It provides a holistic view of how players and fans are consuming and engaging with streaming content across the world’s most popular channels and platforms.”
Brands and publishers who pay for the service will also have access to SuperData’s proprietary Influencer Value Index, which tracks video game content retention, engagement, magnitude and overall value to determine sponsorship ROI. The interactive dashboard also features demographic information about streaming audiences and purchase intent.
SportTechie Takeaway
SuperData has built a sponsorship measurement tool for the gaming industry that is similar to the sort of tools and ratings Nielsen provides to the tradition broadcast media industry, launching just one month after Nielsen acquired the company. The tool seems likely to become a hot commodity for brands and publishers that make up the esports industry. Analysis by Deloitte expects that industry to reach $1.5 billion in revenue by 2020, so this could be a big growth opportunity for Nielsen and SuperData. According to SuperData’s website, the market research firm has already worked with powerful brands within the gaming industry such as Tencent, Microsoft, Twitch, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, and PlayStation.