I did this last year and had a ton of fun. Excited to do this again. If you want to read my predictions for last year, click here.
- Esports (and gaming in general) in the West are now a critical part of pop culture. Esports viewership in 2020 will continue to break records and be the best year yet.
- In 2019, we saw the streaming wars between Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Mixer heat up for individual creators. I expect there to be a shift in strategy towards structuring deals around leagues, tournaments, and teams.
- League, tournament, and team deals will attract even more competition to the streaming wars. Specifically, the bigger media players (AT&T, ESPN, Disney, etc.) will also try to structure deals.
- YouTube, Twitch, Mixer, and Facebook will continue to announce signings of tier-1/2 individual streamers, but their focus will start to shift towards broader deals.
- Twitch and YouTube will continue to win for individual streamers. Mixer and Facebook will fail to gain significant market share in 2020. The streamers that switch to Mixer/FB (with the exception of a few) will struggle to retain high viewership numbers. Proving the power is with the platform vs. creator.
- League of Legends (Riot) & Fortnite (Epic) have been planting seeds throughout 2019 to leverage their IP as a…
