An article by Amelie Canet, fan activities and marketing director at Team Vitality, which operates the V.Hive esports app.
2024 unexpectedly became the year of esports. In the past year alone, the International Olympic Committee confirmed the inaugural Olympic Esports Games in 2025, the Super Bowl of esports took over London – becoming the most-watched esports event in history with almost seven million viewers tuning in, and the Esports World Cup captivated the globe with its staggering $60 million prize pool.
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With a projected revenue of $4.3 billion in 2024 alongside these historic events, esports is an industry that can no longer be ignored. As the industry becomes more mainstream and captivates Gen Z and Gen Alpha globally, we’re beginning to see esports clubs find new ways to engage fans from which traditional sports can learn.
Sports are not just about fitness – they’re about passion, performance, and supporting a team, all of which are central to esports. Unlike traditional sports, which rely on seasonal schedules and limited events to capture fan interest, esports boasts an ‘always-on’ fandom. With a global community of over 3.2 billion gamers online at any given time, the gaming community is inherently digital and deeply intertwined with internet culture.
Being always actively online, esports organizations have begun harnessing this unique fandom landscape, leveraging the opportunity to revolutionize engagement models and authentically connect with their fans 24/7.
The rise in digital fan engagement models:
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By GlobalDataEffective fan engagement requires providing an end-to-end experience for fans their entire journey; before, during, and after an event.
As fandoms continue to grow globally and decentralize from a club’s local area, the practices for fan engagement have been forced to evolve. It’s no longer about shouting slogans from the stands, but about making an impact using digital tools to ensure long-term relationships are retained and built with new supporters.
This is where esports has the advantage. We’re a digitally native industry, and our athletes developed their skills and built their communities online.
Technology is at the forefront of how traditional sports clubs and esports organizations form, maintain, and strengthen fans' bonds with their favorite teams and athletes, and create connections that are easier to preserve from a distance.
Some of the preferred ways for the largest clubs to feed their global fans' appetite between matches and tournaments is to establish a prolific social media presence and utilize fan-focused mobile apps. Esports clubs in particular are demonstrating the revolutionary ways platforms like Twitter, Reddit as well as apps can be used with fans across generations and around the world.
Leveraging an always-on fandom:
Almost 80% of 2-18-year-olds are gamers, spending 30% of their entertainment time gaming, and also prefer spending time with friends in a gaming environment. Esports fans are also more likely to be employed full-time, have a university degree, and be higher earners – with almost half earning above $100,000. This is compared to your traditional diehard sports fan, whose average age is reported to be 47.
A younger, wealthier, and more engaged demographic compared to your typical sports fan, esports is a specific world, with a very specific vocabulary and with even more specific memes. You don't enter the community just like that – it's a private club. You need to know how to effectively speak to this audience.
Where the traditional sports fandom may typically seek game highlights or behind-the-scenes content of their chosen clubs, esports fans crave something more dynamic and interactive. This is where bespoke fan-focused mobile apps come into play – enabling supporters to access a club's entire ecosystem, at the touch of their fingers.
By incorporating custom avatars, exclusive content drops, and personalized rewards, esports clubs' dedicated mobile apps encourage fans to engage with their favorite team at all times, whether it’s through challenges, competitions, or quests. This gamified approach mirrors the excitement of gameplay itself, giving fans a sense of ownership and involvement beyond passive viewership.
The success of mobile apps – V.Hive:
Team Vitality was founded in 2013, and we quickly became France’s national esports club and attracted a fanbase of over 13 million supporters globally. As our fandom expanded worldwide we identified a new challenge – maintaining personal connections with fans across the world.
To effectively capture – and more importantly, keep – the attention of our organization’s global fandom, we created V.Hive, with the goal of transforming passive spectators into active participants and breaking away from traditional sports’ more static engagement.
In its first year, the free V.Hive app recorded over 100,000 downloads, 75,000 active accounts and 35,000 connected wallets. Exclusive content drops and NFTs were also woven into the app, offering unique digital collectibles that resonate with our community – with V.Hive offering 100,000 free NFT drops to fans last year. This approach resonates with core esports fans who value digital assets, real-time updates, and a direct line to their favorite teams.
V.Hive stands out from other fan mobile applications by creating a virtuous cycle that boosts fan engagement on social media, with fans completing over 8 million quests through our social channels and 70 million premium fan experiences offered to the most loyal fans. By encouraging and amplifying community activity on social platforms, the app also brings fans together in an exclusive “private club” on V.Hive.
In addition to building community, V.Hive functions as a first-party data tool and a revenue stream through monetization. Managed entirely in-house, the app enables us to execute tailored marketing strategies, ensuring efficiency, improved ROI, and premium, customized B2B solutions for our partners.
This twofold approach is especially valuable for esports teams, whose sponsorship-driven funding depends on reach and engagement.
V.Hive has also transformed a standard fan engagement model into tangible support through merchandise sales, with a quarter (25%) of all Team Vitality merchandise purchases now occurring through the app. This integration of digital interaction and physical purchases is rare, even in traditional sports apps.
Is it time for sports to learn from esports?
The success of the V.Hive mobile app reflects the wider potential of esports as an influence on the broader sports industry in a way not recognized before. By cultivating continuous engagement, creating immersive digital experiences, and connecting with fans in real time, esports has set a new benchmark for supporter interaction.
We’re witnessing a new era of fandom where technology bridges the gap between teams and their supporters, ensuring that no matter where they are in the world, the connection remains constant. Ultimately, esports is not merely adapting traditional fan engagement practices – it’s reinventing them.
