Success Of LaLiga Santander Challenge Demonstrates ‘Untapped Potential’ Of Traditional And Esports Convergence
May 13, 2020
New Insight has revealed the success of the #LaLigaSantanderChallenge, which saw players from 18 of Spain’s 20 top-flight football clubs take part in an online EA Sports FIFA20 tournament across the weekend of March 20-22.
The virtual tournament, organised by Spanish esports personality Ibai Llanos and LaLiga Santander, took place against the backdrop of worldwide lockdown measures to curb the Covid-19 pandemic, which have led to the vast majority of sporting events being postponed, suspended or cancelled.
The performance of the event was analysed across four mediums: the esports streaming service, Twitch; live TV broadcasts; online news coverage; and social media mentions and engagement.
The data, brought together by Nielsen Sports, specialists in sports industry analytics, shows that the tournament performed strongly on Twitch, with the number of viewers growing consistently each day, reaching a minute average of 123,000 on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd. The final, which saw Real Madrid’s Marco Asensio beat Leganés’ Aitor Ruibal 4-2, attracted a peak audience of 173,000 on the platform.
The event was also shown across mainstream broadcast channels Movistar Deportes 1, Gol and #Vamos, attracting a cumulative audience of more than 205,000 over the weekend. The total broadcast coverage lasted more than 23 hours, with the high viewership figures suggesting there are opportunities for brands to capitalise on the enthusiasm of traditional and esports fans via both streaming services and mainstream television.
The data also suggested that traditional sports and associated brands can utilise esports to generate online news coverage in the absence of live, traditional sports. Online news outlets were a significant source of exposure for the event, with interest remaining high from the announcement of the tournament, through to the official draw, line-ups and the event itself. In total, more than 1,100 pieces of online news coverage were generated around the #LaLigaSantanderChallenge, across national and international sports and non-sports media.
The support from traditional broadcasters and high levels of online news coverage, coupled with the large pool of esports enthusiasts tuning in on Twitch, helped drive high levels of social media engagement around the event, particularly on Twitter. The confirmation of an impressive line-up of clubs and individual players helped raise interest further, with the likes of Real Madrid harnessing their huge Twitter following of 33.97m to drive more engagement.
In total the event generated more than 35,000 tweets and retweets, with engagement levels rising consistently over the course of the weekend, peaking during the final. This LaLiga Santander Challenge data was collated by Nielsen Sports, who produced this report on the event.