THE FUTURE FORECAST 2022: ESPORT IS THE NEW FAMILY SPORT

The Insights Family, the global leader in kids, parents, and family market intelligence, launches their annual Future Forecast 2022 report, which predicts some of the key trends in the kids, parents and family universe to watch out for next year.

Predictions include:

The impact of the “flexible family” will see new opportunities in terms of the times of the week families can share experiences which is likely to further fuel the experience economy as the influence of kids is expected to grow across all family purchasing decisions.

Education to be reinvented and for the creation of school for the family, based on the growth of family-focused edutainment and education experiences.

Esport becomes the new family sport with more and more parents exploring this activity with kids.
According to the report, 20% of millennial parents globally state that playing video games is one of their favourite family activities – ranking as the number one hobby amongst families in the US. As parents are interacting more with the gaming industry, the study suggests that it is only a matter of time before esports becomes a family viewing experience also. In the same way that Traditional sports viewership unites the family unit, so too will esports in time.

When it comes to playing sports, parents are 70% more likely than kids to have influence over this activity. The same is true of attending live sporting events, although in this case the asymmetry in influence is even more pronounced towards parents, who are 93% more likely to influence this family activity. In the sporting world, parents are the key decision makers in the family unit.

But esport trend will be accelerated through kids’ influence in the household. We are even likely to see esports be handed up the generations, in contrast to traditional sports. The Insights Family’s previous data has shown that parents have significant influence over sports events, but recently we have seen that 74% of kids globally hold a lot of influence over video games in the household, according to parents. More parents are being exposed to the world of esports than ever before, and as such the industry must be prepared for an influx of new audiences to cater for.

More parents are being exposed to the world of esports than ever before, and as such the industry must be prepared for an influx of new audiences to cater for. As a result, we are likely to see the esports industry pivot in order to make their branding, marketing and partnerships reflect more of a family focus in the coming years.

Sarah Riding, Senior Research & Trend Director at The Insights Family comments,

“Increasingly, parents will recognise the appeal and legitimacy of esports as an activity worth spending time on, particularly as it moves increasingly into the family space. Whether this is passively through watching competitions or encouraging kids to spend more time pursuing their esports related talents”

Future Forecast 2022 is the fourth iteration of the coveted report, which has previously predicted the rise of Direct to Consumer (2017), Generation Speak (2018) and Co-Creation (2020).

The report which is inspired by the company’s extensive knowledge and insight of surveying more than 500,000 family members across 18 countries every year, has continued to track and monitor the impact of a number of key factors such as Covid, technology and the environment and how they are transforming the attitudes, behaviour and consumption of kids, parents and families around the world.

The complimentary 26 page Future Forecast report is available to download by visiting: get.theinsightsfamily.com/futureforecast