Christina Gough
Research expert covering sports and video gaming
eSports market in Italy - statistics & facts
In recent years, eSports have transformed from a niche hobby to a worldwide multi-million dollar industry. In 2022, Italy was one of the ten leading eSports markets worldwide by revenue, ranking above countries such as Canada and India. The success of the sector can be seen in the fact that the penetration rate of eSports in Italy was forecast to increase a further nine percentage points by 2027 compared to 2022. The allure of eSports, for professional gamers at the very least, can partially be explained by the lucrative prize money offered to those who win competitions. As of 2023, Riccardo Romiti, who games under the alias of Reynor, was the most successful eSports player in Italy, based on lifetime earnings. Reynor is most prominently known for his skills playing StarCraft II, which was also the leading eSports game in Italy based on cumulative prize money won.
How profitable is the Italian eSports industry?
eSports is very popular in Italy, with the Mediterranean country’s competitive gaming market showing continued signs of growth since 2017. As of 2022, the revenue of the eSports industry in Italy was valued at over 81 million U.S. dollars, denoting an increase of about 128 percent compared to 2017. Looking closer at the revenue generated by each segment within the Italian eSports sector, eSports betting constituted the largest share of income in 2022. In the same year, a Statista Market Insights report identified that there were 8.8 million eSports users in Italy, with the revenue generated per user amounting to 9.28 U.S. dollars in 2022.How popular is gaming in Italy?
Video game sales have generated billions in revenue in Italy and the sector is forecast to sell even more in the near future. In 2022, the annual revenue of the video game market in Italy stood at 5.29 billion U.S. dollars, with this figure expected to increase to 7.97 billion U.S. dollars by 2027. Meanwhile, a 2023 Statista Consumer Insights Global survey found that action-adventure games were the most popular video game genre in the country. The study also found that half of gamers in Italy were between 40 and 59 years old in 2023, with just 19 percent belonging to the 20 to 29 year age group. Additionally, while a wide variety of devices were used to play video games in Italy, over half of respondents in a nationally representative sample said they regularly used smartphones for gaming purposes.Streaming video games in Italy
In 2022, Twitch was the most used video game streaming site in Italy. Twitch is a live streaming platform which provides a wide range of online entertainment, including gaming video content. As of 2023, POW3R was the most followed Italian-language Twitch streamer, having accumulated close to two million followers. However, the Italian-language Twitch streamer who had the highest total viewership hours was Gianmarco Tocco, better known by his Twitch alias Tumblurr, as followers had spent more than four million hours cumulatively watching his content.
