How we calculate "Media Value" (and what it actually means)

How we calculate "Media Value" (and what it actually means)

Sep 29, 2025 3 min read

We’ve made our Media Value metric publicly available across the entire Esports Charts tournament database. It’s the first time this kind of sponsorship benchmark has been opened to everyone in the esports industry. Now, for any event in our system, you can see not just how many people watched, but how much is an event worth for brands looking to obtain one banner throughout the entire event.

In a nutshell, Media Value answers a simple question:

"If a brand had to pay for all the time their logo (1% of the screen) was shown during a broadcast, what would the bill look like?"

It’s our way of turning viewership numbers into an easy-to-read dollar figure that reflects the advertising value of a tournament.

How we calculate it

To get the Media Value number, we combine a few things:

  • How many people are watching a localized broadcast? We take the average number of people watching the broadcasts for each language (like English, Spanish, or Korean). More viewers = more value.

  • How long did the stream last? We count the total number of seconds the broadcast ran. We then convert the number into standard "30-second ad units" because that's how the advertising industry typically prices things. It's like counting how many 30-second ad slots were available throughout the entire tournament.

  • What's the price tag in that region? This is the CPM (Cost Per Mille), which is the industry term for the cost to show an ad to 1,000 people. A crucial detail: ad rates aren't the same everywhere. European-language audiences, for example, usually have higher ad rates than others. We use regional CPM rates to reflect this real-world cost.

  • How visible was the logo? Since not every viewer focuses on a logo in the corner for the entire broadcast, we account for this by assuming the logo covered about 1% of the screen.

We run this calculation for each language stream and then add them all together. The result is the media value of keeping a banner visible for the entire tournament broadcast.

Why it matters

  • It gives a standardized benchmark for tournaments—something that’s easy to compare across different regions and games.

  • It shows how audience geography and language can change the commercial value of the same event.

It's a powerful way to show tournament organizers and sponsors the true scale and financial worth of the exposure they're getting.

Explore Media Value now

You can check out any tournament's Media Value by just searching for it on our website. You can find the Media Value at the very top of the page. Don't know where to start? Here are some options:

2024 League of Legends World Championship — Highest Media Value of any esports tournament 

MPL Indonesia Season 14 — Highest Media Value of any mobile esports tournament

2022 League of Legends World Championship — Highest Media Value of any North American esports tournament

One more thing

Media Value is a baseline, not a replacement for full sponsorship evaluations. Actual commercial deals often include many other things: VOD, in-person activations, product placement, or streamer integrations. For more detailed assessments, Esports Charts provides tailored valuations.

Share:
Author / [email protected] Esports Charts Team

Esports Charts ESCharts Pro

Unlock features with Esports Charts PRO:
  • Unlimited pages per day
  • Languages and platforms statistics by Peak Viewers
  • TOP-5 matches of event by languages and platforms
  • TOP-5 teams of event by Hours Watched & Average Viewers
  • Tournaments comparison
  • Additional Twitch and YouTube statistics for event
  • Exclusive news
Or learn more about PRO plan

To use this feature, please sign in

Sign in

Sign In to use this feature

Sign in