A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TOP EARNING FEMALE AND MALE ESPORTS PLAYERS: ASSESSING SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY

Aims: The aim of this study was to compare social media engagement of the top-earning male and top-earning female esports players to determine if social media engagement relates to competition earnings and differs based upon gender.

Methods and Results:  Eighty-one top earning esports players, the top earning forty-one females and the top earning forty males, were chosen as the sample size for this study. The players’ social media followers on the platform Twitter were analyzed. Results indicated that the top-earning male players earn significantly more than the top-earning female players; however, the top female earning esports professionals often have a greater number of social media followers and rates of engagement than their top-earning male counterparts.

Conclusions: The study indicated that the top female esports professionals earn $3.2 million dollars in tournament earnings less then male esports players during the period of analysis, confirming previous research and anecdotal evidence that females are severely underrepresented on the top performing teams and in the highest earning tournaments. However, despite earning much lower overall prize money, numerous top female esports players have a large social media following that often surpasses many of the male top earning esports players, indicating that potentially powerful marketing opportunities exist if brands utilize top-earning female esports professionals. Future studies should analyze the public reaction to top-earning female professionals in other areas of their non-performance life (sponsorship, public appearances, etc.) to determine if such players have a similar or potentially greater impact than their male counterparts.