All eyes are on London and The O2 arena as they prepare to host the 2024 League of Legends World Championship Finals, commonly known as Worlds. This event is one of the most highly anticipated occasions in the esports calendar, where teams from around the globe battle it out for the honor of hoisting the Summoner’s Cup.

The Worlds 2024 Opening Ceremony will feature star-studded artists and captivating performances, drawing thousands to The O2 while millions more tune in from around the globe.

In the latest installment of our ‘Did you know?’ series, we explore the significance of the World Championship and highlight global gaming trends using our aggregated and anonymized Mastercard data.

Did you know?

Millions watching, outnumbering entire nations

  • According to data from Esports Charts, the 2023 League of Legends World Championship Finals was the most watched esports event ever, with a peak viewership of 6.4 million - more than the population of Denmark.
  • The record-breaking viewership in 2017, 2022 and 2023 all coincide with Faker’s (widely considered to be the greatest League of Legends player of all time) appearance at the World Championship Finals.

Gaming has made a comeback

  • We analyze global online gaming spending by identifying the top 10 gaming merchants based on spend, using our anonymized and aggregated Mastercard data.
  • This proxy for global gaming spending reveals a 7.5% year-to-date increase globally as of June. Although this reflects a moderation from the 10.4% gain in 2023, the strong 2023 growth partly rebounded from a post-pandemic pullback in 2022.
  • Brazil is experiencing the fastest online gaming growth year-to-date, with an increase of 21.2% year-over-year, followed by Mexico at 17.7% and Kazakhstan at 16.1%.

From essentials to luxuries: Elasticity in the gaming market

In economics, elasticity is a key concept that measures how responsive one variable is to changes in another. For example, income elasticity gauges how consumer spending shifts when income changes. Economists categorize goods based on their income elasticities of demand into three distinct types:

  • Inferior goods: These goods have a negative elasticity, meaning that as income increases, spending on them tends to decrease. Examples include items like canned foods, used clothing and public transportation.
  • Necessity goods: With an elasticity between zero and one, spending on necessity goods rises with income, but the proportion of income spent on these goods decreases. Common examples are food staples (bread, rice, vegetables) and utilities.
  • Superior goods: Goods with an elasticity greater than one fall into this category. As income rises, consumers allocate a larger share of their spending to these items. Notable examples include fine-dining and travel experiences.

So, where does gaming fit into this framework? Our analysis suggests that the elasticity of gaming stands at 1.2, categorizing it as a superior good. We arrive at this estimate by examining GDP per capita, in log form, relative to our aggregate of gaming spending.12 Each dot in the below chart represents a country’s GDP per capita and gaming spend for a given year between 2020-2023. The countries in the top right quadrant have both high GDP per capita and gaming spending. The further above the best fit line indicates even relatively higher gaming per GDP versus those countries below the line, where it is relative weaker. Take the U.S. versus Luxembourg — both are on the right side of the chart showing strong GDP per capita but the U.S. is above the line, showing a relatively stronger preference for gaming. Taking all the countries between 2020 and 2023 reveals a "best fit line" with a relationship where a 1.0% increase in GDP per capita correlates with a 1.2% increase in gaming spend.

In simpler terms, as economies grow and individuals enjoy higher incomes, not only does the total amount spent on gaming rise, but the proportion of income dedicated to gaming also increases. Economics provides valuable insights into consumer behavior and highlights the growing importance of gaming in today’s modern world.

To learn more about economic insights from the Mastercard Economics Institute, contact your Mastercard representative or request a demo.

Notes & Disclaimer

About the Mastercard Economics Institute

Mastercard Economics Institute launched in 2020 to analyze macroeconomic trends through the lens of the consumer. A team of economists, analysts and data scientists draws on Mastercard insights - including Mastercard SpendingPulse™ - and third-party data to deliver regular reporting on economic issues for key customers, partners and policymakers.

Disclaimer

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  1. We use a log scale because it spaces values by their relative sizes, allowing us to capture the percentage change effect of GDP per capita on gaming spend, whereas a regular scale only reflects changes in dollar amounts.↩︎

  2. Our aggregate of gaming spend is defined as the log of gaming spend, rescaled to have a mean of 100.↩︎