F1 ESPORTS SERIES

The past 12 months has been a record-breaking period for F1 Esports, with the 2020 F1 Esports Series presented by Aramco, its official esports competition, proving to be F1’s most successful to date, charting record levels of viewership and engagement.

The 2020 F1 Esports Series was the fourth iteration of F1’s official esports competition. The virtual racing series saw ten official F1 Esports Teams compete virtually over a multi-round championship using the official F1 2020 video game, developed by Codemasters, to determine the series Constructors’ and Drivers’ World Champions. The series ran from October through to December, with 12 races taking place across four separate events, all broadcast live from the Gfinity Arena in London and streamed across F1 digital channels including Facebook, YouTube and Twitch.

Fans were able to consume unprecedented levels of F1 Esports Series content, with double the number of live shows and the introduction of dedicated streams for qualifying sessions. Combined with new innovations including extended race lengths, dedicated full qualifying sessions and new circuits, this led to record viewing figures of 11.4 million stream views across the season, a 98% increase in viewers year-on-year. The F1 Esports Series also saw record levels of participation, with more than 237,000 racers entering the various qualification routes, a huge increase of 117% year-on-year.

Following the huge success of the Virtual Grand Prix series during lockdown last summer, F1 successfully re-introduced the format for a three-race series in spring 2021 during the Formula 1 off-season. Positioned as an entertainment product, the series combined real world F1 drivers with celebrities to engage new audiences and bring new fans to the sport. Teams competed across a range of race formats to win a share of $100k for their chosen charities.