theScore Esports - The Leader in Competitive Gaming Coverage

Overview

theScore esports is North America’s preeminent esports media destination. Home to the largest esports media operation in North America, theScore uniquely covers the competitive gaming landscape with an innovative storytelling style that has resonated with fans across the globe. theScore produces entertaining and accessible esports programming that drills down into the stories behind the games, players, and personalities that fans love. While other ‘mainstream’ sports media outlets have pulled back their esports coverage, theScore’s business is rapidly growing, built on a successful content strategy that is driving explosive growth across its channels and expanding esports fandom globally.

Goals

• Become the leading channel for esports fans looking for dynamic and engaging video storytelling about their favorite games, players, and personalities.

• Use our unique storytelling style to break down the silos in esports, playing a meaningful role in growing cross-game fandom with casual and hard-core fans alike.

• Generate explosive growth in audience and engagement, driving meaningful opportunities for brands to engage with fans of competitive gaming.

Strategy

The esports market is saturated with myriad media players providing an array of coverage related to the industry’s live events, athletes, and breaking news. We knew it would be challenging to stand out in that space, and instead embarked on a strategy that appealed to the massive esports audience in a completely novel way. We identified an opportunity to effectively tell the stories BEHIND the games, tournaments, and personalities that make-up the competitive video game scene, taking fans behind-the-scenes in a way that had never been done before. Leveraging our production experience and expertise, we populated our channels with highly-produced, on-demand content that appealed to both hardcore and casual fans alike. This strategy created an innovative content offering with cross-game appeal that cut through traditional esports barriers and could be widely enjoyed by fans who appreciated the on-demand availability.

theScore esports has assembled the largest dedicated esports content team anywhere in the world. Generating hundreds of millions of video views a quarter, the team produces up to eight new pieces of video content every week across its family of successful franchises:

• The Story Of: Our flagship franchise. A deep dive into the history behind the biggest games, teams, and players in esports.

• Don’t @ Me: News and current affairs series diving into the latest happenings in gaming culture.

• Esports Shorts: Compelling, easily digestible stories that transcend their respective games and scenes.

• Top 10: Narrative-driven listicle ranking everything from the ‘hypest’ plays to the most talked-about moments.

Results

theScore esports has grown to become North America’s preeminent esports media destination. In Q4 F2020 (June-August 2020), our content across all platforms reached a new all-time record of 292 million views - YoY growth of 243%. An additional 112,000 YouTube subscribers were added during the period, with total channel subscribers now exceeding 1.5 million. theScore esports’ TikTok account added approximately 641,000 new followers in Q4 F2020. Total account followers now exceed 1.1 million.

This growth and engagement has opened up new monetization opportunities. In 2020 we produced custom content for globally recognized brands including Mastercard, Riot Games, Mortal Kombat, Razer, Geico, and others. Our ability to reach esports fans in a completely authentic and organic way is highly attractive to advertisers and game publishers.

Our pioneering storytelling approach has also enabled us to break down the barriers that exist in esports, generating interest around games outside of their typical fanbases. By highlighting stories with broad appeal, we’ve developed a reputation as the premier esports storyteller - with our recent sponsored collaboration with Riot Games to tell ‘The Story of the LEC’ and ‘The New Kings Of China” serving as prime examples.

Furthermore, theScore esports' growth in audience and production capabilities resulted in it being named the exclusive English language broadcast partner for the League of Legends’ Demacia Championship, a marquee annual event featuring 24 of China’s top esports teams, with coverage broadcast across its YouTube and Twitch channels.