In our third post in our series on eSports (previous posts: 6 Lessons You Can Learn From Analyzing eSports Brands on Social Media & eSports: Are they here to stay?), we’ll be covering the gaming ecosystem in Poland. We’re taking a look at streamers and sponsors as well as running an Audience Scan of Polish gamers. If you want to know more about the biggest players in streaming, what Polish gamers are really interested in, and the spending patterns and effectiveness of key sponsors, we’ve got it covered below.
Popular Polish Streamers – Facebook vs. YouTube Fans
Popular Polish Streamers – number of fans on Facebook vs. YouTube
Firstly, we needed to know who gamers follow on social media and how successful these people are. The most popular Polish streamers generally have a leading edge, with the top 4 dominating the rest of the list.
The number of fans on Facebook or subscribers on YouTube isn’t the only thing that matters. The interaction between the people on these pages is just as important. For example, Jarosław PashaBiceps Jarząbkowski has the highest number of fans on Facebook by a significant margin. But when it comes to engagement, Gimper leads the pack. As for YouTube, izak LIVE still has the highest level of engagement as well as the largest subscriber base.
Popular Polish Streamers – Facebook vs. YouTube Activities
Polish Gamers Audience Scan
Now that we have an overview of Polish streamers and YouTubers, let’s look at the real community – the gamers. The best way to do this is through our Audience Scan research, done by our Data Science Team.
This analysis covers data from Facebook based on a selected target group. Our chosen target group covers around 8 million people living in Poland who are interested in Video Games and are gamers. We included several other interests, but the Video Games interest covered almost the entire target group.
Based on information we got from the target group, we compared the entire Facebook population in Poland. We included their interests, habits and lifestyle choices.
Beverages & Alcohol – are gamers drinking wine with candlelit dinners?
What are the most popular beverages & alcohol types among Polish gamers?
We were quite surprised by this section. It wasn’t a shock that energy drinks were on top when it comes to beverages and affinity to gamers. But wine coming in second after distilled beverages was very unexpected. When it comes to absolute percentages however, beer seems to be the poison of choice for gamers!
We’re done with what gamers like to drink, let’s see what they eat. It must be just kebabs and McDonald’s right? Well – that’s partially true, but not entirely.
Cooking & Food
eSport in Poland – what gamers like to eat?
Fast food tops the list of course, but a few places down we have Organic Food. It even has a higher affinity index than pizza – PIZZA! Who would have thought? This can be explained by the demographics. Younger people in general are more aware of what they’re eating and the quality of the food they’re getting. They even try several alternatives, like going vegetarian and vegan – which you’ll find below pizza.
It’s not only restaurants and caterers who can take advantage of this information. Platforms such as Pyszne.pl and UberEats can benefit by advertising properly to this segment and being present at eSports events.
Influencers – Popularity & Affinity
Who has the biggest influence on Polish gamers community?
Keep in mind that the chart on the right (with Robert Lewandowski and Chodakowska topping the list) represents the most popular influencers to Polish gamers in general, while the one on the left (with Jarosław pasha Jarząbkowski and Karol Linetty topping the list) represents the most popular for Polish gamers exclusively.
Such research helps brands choose the best influencers to cooperate with – not because of their scale, but because of the actual power they have within a specific group.
Retail & Shopping Habits
What are Polish gamers retail and shopping habits?Data shows that Polish gamers love online shopping – this is one of the biggest marketplaces for all things gaming. Whether that be buying games on Steam, purchasing downloadable content, or buying PC components for the perfect PC gaming rig.
Because of the value and the increased interest in retail over the average Polish person on Facebook, getting into this market is worthwhile for investors and sponsors.
Sponsors & Promoters
The group of sponsors was chosen based on their popularity among streamers and teams in Poland. We also chose them based on whether or not they’re from Poland or operating at a high level here. Play was included in its entirety as well as a benchmark, since they’re so massively involved in eSports.
Our goal was to see how well sponsors were doing regarding organic and paid communication on Facebook. Do they have the same tactic for reaching out to their fans and clients?
Let’s look at promotion vs. total impressions obtained on Facebook between July-September 2017. This means that the bigger the circle, the higher the total number of impressions (views) that the posts got. The more to the right the circles are, the more sponsored posts the brand had. The higher the circle, the more total number of posts the brand had.
For example: Polska Liga Esportowa had the lowest number of sponsored posts while having one of the highest number of total posts between the analyzed pages, with a modest reach of 771,000 impressions.
How Well They Engage?
To properly judge the ability of brands and pages, we need to measure their engagement. We can’t just focus on how many people saw them. A page can even have a billion likes and 20 billion views over 3 months. But if no one interacts with the posts, it means the audience doesn’t find it interesting.
Take a look at the following chart. It shows the average number of activities (likes/reactions, comments and shares) per post – arguably the best metric to measure the effectiveness of posts.
And what is the effectiveness of promoted posts really? Well, this is where we see the main difference between brands. Kinguin is way ahead of all other pages in terms of activities per sponsored posts. But unfortunately for them, they fall behind in terms of organic posts – which is where Play excels. This gives us insight into the market and the important data to focus on to come out on top!
Effectiveness of promoted posts.
Our Conclusions on eSports in Poland
- First of all, don’t assume anything regarding the gaming community, do your research.
- The biggest influencers aren’t necessarily the best ones. Finding your audience’s niche is key.
- Do your research before taking on any paid campaigns.
- Watch your competitors and learn from their successes and failures.
Want to know more about eSports in Poland? Take a look at our presentation from the IAB #HowTo conference:
Klaudia Żyłka
Téa Liarokapi
Marta Bongilaj
