The gaming world’s adrenaline-fuelled competitive arm is a skyrocketing sector. Sitting at a cross-section of internet culture, sportstainment, and fandom, the industry’s projected CAGR to 2030 is 19% – taking the global market to $6bn (GlobalData 2025).

While pro-teams like T1 operate like traditional sporting organisations, a separate tier of ‘creator-led’ competitor squads, forged by gaming content creators clubbing together to go pro, are using social media to shape the conversation and dynamics of esports culture. These squads are both climbing tournament leaderboards and building influencer brands, opening up the esports world beyond gameplay.

Esports’ fan-made content is linked to broader gaming culture, but utilises a distinct system of humour, dramatics, and ‘if you know, you know’ vernacular. We unpack this fandom’s essential communication and connection tools, including the elite player idol-worshipping designed to boost the scene’s wider sporting credibility, co-streaming influencers, the esports meme-ology machine, and the streaming scene’s mind-boggling lexicon.

Esports is rich with brand possibilities within ‘fourth space’ engagement, the term used for when online passions turn into offline, communal experiences (see Look Ahead 2026). The esports IRL spectrum runs from massive festivalised tournaments (stadium-based competition finals boasting huge attendance and megawatt brand-sponsor presence) to devoted amateurs gathering in internet cafes for group play sessions.

As gaming moves further into the mainstream pop cultural zeitgeist, esports is witnessing more fashion and music crossovers. Fashion brands and pop groups are finding creative inspiration and opportunity within the scene’s prevailing 90s origins and aesthetics and current stars and events, providing a blueprint for brands seeking subculture-sympathetic, non-gaming routes in.