Esports: the consumers’ awareness levels of esports in South Africa.

Abstract

Esports is a growing industry that has many misconceptions that create a lack of awareness and a negative perception of esports in South Africa. The study aims to examine the consumers’ awareness, knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of esport activities in South Africa and how these factors affect the esports businesses ability to attract the esport consumer. The target sample size of the population was 384 consumers. This study used a quantitative approach to gather data through a selfadministered online questionnaire that was developed using google forms, this enabled the responses to be recorded anonymously. Two hundred and one respondents responded to the questionnaire. The misconception of consumers not knowing about esports, was proven wrong due to consumers gaining knowledge mainly through online gaming communities. The awareness of esports amongst consumers were high, however the associations and organisations were not as well known. It was evident that 99.5% were aware of esports and 93.5% would classify esports as a sport. It is important for consumers to be aware of other associations as these associations help to ensure the level of esports is at a professional level and will enable them to identify which organizations are credible. The respondents’ attitudes attitude towards esports was positive and that they were not affected by external social factors towards the sport. The study revealed that advertising in the esports market is not as effective as it should be as consumers felt they were not as impactful as mainstream techniques. The study recommends the creation of awareness about esports to the greater populace via more traditional media to penetrate and correct the various social norms.