Jung von Matt Gaming Atlas: Gaming has long since ceased to be a niche market

Competitive gaming - i.e. e-sports - has been a global hype for several years. It has its own subculture, millions of euros in prize money, and tens of millions of viewers streaming tournaments. The market is booming, with many global brands securing the rights to leagues and teams. What gets lost in the shuffle is that e-sports is a competitive niche, but gaming is a mass market. This is shown by the data of the opinion research institute Insightful in the representative study "Gaming Atlas Switzerland 2021" by Jung von Matt and Ovomaltine: With 44 percent, almost half of the Swiss describe themselves as gamers and play at least five hours a week, 26 percent of them even between five and 30 hours. Gaming is now a bigger global market than the film industry and the entire North American sports industry combined.

Gamers mainly play games on smartphones (83% of gamers), PCs (63%) and tablets (56%). The most popular console is the PS4, followed by Nintendo consoles (Nintendo Wii and older) and Nintendo Switch. The most popular games are Mario Kart (48% of gamers*), Candy Crush, (46%), Sims (38%), Fifa (36%), Pokémon (34%), Minecraft (32%), Need for Speed (32%), Call of Duty (32%), GTA (29%), Super Mario Bros. (27%) and Fortnite (27%). The study also shows that gamers are very interested in sports and are often active themselves. Hiking, swimming and jogging are among their most popular sports. What is particularly interesting is that 58 percent of gamers and 76 percent of competitive gamers have a positive attitude toward collaborations with brands.

Huge playing field for brands

Despite the high level of distribution and acceptance, only very few companies in Switzerland have recognized the gaming community as a relevant target group. And this is despite the fact that it is a community with extremely high purchasing power and brand affinity. So what's the reason why so little is happening in the gaming world? "It often has to do with outdated prejudices. Gaming is still perceived by many as a niche and gamers are connoted with negative stereotypes," says Cyrill Hauser, Chief Client Officer and gaming expert at Jung von Matt Limmat. "This is surprising, as the playing field for brands is huge: from campaigns and branded content that is channel- and target group-specific on Twitch, Reddit and Co. to cooperations with globally beloved gaming IPs on the product level, anything is possible." Together with Michelle Danilschenko, Managing Director at Jung von Matt Tech, and Jonas Bayona, Social Creative Director at Jung von Matt Limmat, Hauser forms the agency's team of gaming experts.

Although many things work, one thing is indispensable: Appreciation for the community. Jonas Bayona sees this as the most important criterion when it comes to successful marketing to this target group: "Anyone who can position themselves authentically, creatively and with a high brand fit in the gaming community will win. To do this, however, you have to understand and appreciate the community." And Swiss brands can also learn from the gaming industry when it comes to corporate platforms and apps. "Many creatives are inspired by games. Nowhere else is the experience built up as consistently and seamlessly as in video games," says Michelle Danilschenko.

The representative study "Gaming Atlas 2021" was conducted by the market research institute Insightful in collaboration with Jung von Matt Limmat, Jung von Matt Nerd and Ovaltine. In the study, 2000 Swiss people over the age of 16 were asked about their gaming behavior. 878 of the respondents describe themselves as gamers, 365 as competitive gamers (focus on participation in tournaments). Data for Germany and Austria were also analyzed as part of the study.