The recognition and popularity of e-sports in Hungary is constantly increasing, three-quarters of the adult Hungarian population have already heard the term, and 1 million people play e-sports games on a weekly basis – it was revealed by Reacty Digital and the HUNESZ 2024 video game and from e-sport research. Thanks to the growing size of the base, the amount of related expenses also increased, reaching HUF 80 billion annually. More and more e-sports games are also being released for smartphones, which in 2024 already has a noticeable effect on video gaming habits.

In Hungary, 3.5 million people between the ages of 18 and 65 play video games, including those who rarely take out their mobile phones to search for words. Among them, 2.5 million people can be considered active video gamers, they are the ones who devote themselves to this hobby on a weekly basis. Although the number of video gamers has been stable for years, the proportion of people who (also) play e-sports games within the group is constantly increasing: by 2024, the number of people who play at least weekly will reach 1 million people, of which 0.5 million people are engaged in e-sports on a daily basis. with sports games.

“Thanks to the increased number of people who play e-sports games, a statistically reliable amount and distribution of respondents can already be obtained from a representative sample, which is why in 2024 we combined the topic previously investigated in two separate samples (video games and e-sports) into a joint large-scale representative research. . This increases the reliability of the data, but limits comparability with data from previous years.” Dorottya Vass, the head of the research, points out.

Mobile is coming to the fore

The platform of e-sports 8-10 years ago was clearly the PC. Laptops have been catching up for a few years now, they also have more and more capacity, with additional hardware and games running in the cloud, there is hardly any difference between the experience provided by the two devices. And in 2024, smartphones are already extremely popular, and more and more traditionally PC or console games are available on this platform as well. Currently, 70 percent of those who play e-sports games use a PC or laptop, two-thirds use a smartphone, and half use a console for this activity. The most popular games are Call of Duty, EA Sports FC (FIFA), Fortnite, PUBG, League of Legends and Counter Strike 2.

Spending is moving online

The spending of the e-sports base increased from ~70 billion forints to ~80 billion forints, which is mainly due to hardware spending and a smaller part due to the increase in game subscriptions. The hardware market normalized, the effect of the shortage of goods caused by the covid epidemic and the subsequent price increases subsided. In the year before June 2024 (data collection), members of the e-sports base spent HUF 40 billion on hardware, HUF 16.2 billion on video games, HUF 11.7 billion on subscriptions, HUF 9.2 billion on in-game content, while HUF 1.4 billion for souvenirs. This means a stagnation in game purchases and in-game spending, and a decrease in the merchandise market.

Not only gamers watch streams

17 percent of the Hungarian population aged 18-65 (~1 million people) watch e-sports videos, broadcasts, and streams, including those who do not play video games at all. Gameplay videos are the most popular, ahead of e-sports matches. A third of e-sports video content consumers spent more time watching videos/streams than playing games in the month prior to the survey, and a fifth spent roughly the same amount of time on both, so streaming is almost as dominant an activity as gaming itself. In this area, the smartphone as a platform is by no means lagging behind, and may even become the market leader in the future.

Stereotypes vs reality

Every year, we examine the common stereotype that people who play video games exercise less and do sports less than others. In reality, the opposite is true, which is mainly due to demographic reasons: the younger age group typically spends their free time more actively. Half of the Hungarian population aged 18-65 and 80 percent of the e-sports base do sports. Similarly, the stereotype that e-sport is a solitary activity can be refuted, isolating the individual, who therefore spends less time in company: the social experience is a particularly motivating force for video games, and e-sport games are particularly characterized by the fact that they are played with friends .

Source: HUNESZ