The two markets with the most enthusiastic followers were from China and the Philippines, according to May 2022–Apr 2023 statistics.

Based on  market-specific fan data across 200 leagues, 50 events, 45+ game titles, 500 athletes and 2,000 teams and up-to-date data from than 300,000 interviews over the last 12 months from May 2022, YouGov has released various rankings in the e-sports industry.

First, the data shows that 80% of the world’s e-sports followers reside in the Asia Pacific, with the remaining 20% comprising fans from the Americas (8%), the Middle East/Africa (7%) and Europe (5%).

Second, the top two markets globally, with the highest proportion of e-sports followers, were China and the Philippines, with 20% in each country indicating that they watched e-sports “on a regular basis”. The next three hottest other markets in the Asia Pacific market were Indonesia (16%), Vietnam (16%), and Taiwan (16%), where one in six residents checked by YouGov were e-sports followers.

Finally, in terms of the e-sports content that were most popular in the APAC region, the 25 top game titles or franchises were:


At the global level:

    • Arena of Valor / Honor of Kings was the runner-up among e-sports followers globally.
    • Call of Duty took third place among e-sports followers globally, while placing #1 in the Americas, #2 in Europe and Middle East/Africa, and #3 in the Asia Pacific region.
    • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) was the fourth most popular title globally and #4 in Europe. It ranked #5 in the Asia Pacific region, #6 in Americas and #7 in Middle East/Africa.
    • PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS (PUBG) and PUBG Mobile took the fifth and sixth spots globally. The franchise’s popularity is largely driven by Asia Pacific, where the desktop/console version ranked #4 and mobile version ranked #6. The desktop/console version was also more popular in Europe at #16, compared to the mobile version at #23. The mobile version, however, was more popular in the Middle East/Africa (#9) and Americas (#13), compared to the desktop console version (#11 and #14 respectively).
    • FIFA, which ranked #7 globally, was among the top 3 games in most regions but was much less popular in APAC (#12). It was the #1 most popular title among e-sports followers in the Middle East/Africa and ranked #2 in the Americas and #3 in Europe.
    • Cross Fire ranked #10 globally and #7 in APAC. It was #17 in Middle East/Africa, #21 in the Americas, and #22 in Europe.
    • Valorant ranked #16 globally, was more popular in Europe and Americas (both #9), than in the Middle East/Africa (#12) and APAC (#18).
    • Similarly, Fortnight Battle Royale ranked #20 globally, ranked #6 and #7 in Europe and Americas, and #13 in the Middle East/Africa and #25 in APAC.