FaZe Clan followed by more US teen males than any traditional sports team

A recent report by YouGov, an international research data and analytics group, shows that esports is dominating the attention of teen males.

With a proprietary panel of over 11 million registered members globally and operations in the UK, Americas, Mainland Europe, Middle East, India, and Asia Pacific, YouGov has one of the world’s largest research networks.

The report is quite balanced in showing the ups and downs of esports during the past year. There were substantial increases in video gaming activity in 2020 during the initial phases of the pandemic. However, those increases were not as widespread in 2021. This decline can partially be attributed to the re-emerging popularity of outdoor leisure activities as the severity of the pandemic started to ease. However, there were some very interesting results showing that esports will be a dominant force in the long term. Here are some of the highlights of the YouGov report:

YouGov

Teenage consumers remain a powerful demographic in the gaming space and their behavior can help hypothesize where the industry is going. If there is any doubt about the power of esports, consider this: One in five American boys aged 13-17 support FaZe Clan, the biggest esports team in the world. No traditional sports team enjoys that level of support among this demographic. In fact, three out of the top five teams with the most support are esports teams.

If brands want to market to male youth, they should look to video games, not social media. Ads in video games are a powerful tool for marketers to reach America’s youth, according to YouGov Teen Profiles, a new YouGov data tool that takes a closer look at the consumer habits of young Americans aged 13 – 17. 

Finally, we’ll end with a stat that demonstrates the dominance of video games in society today: more than two in five consumers aged 18-24 from around the world say video games are as culturally important — if not more important — than music.