US: PepsiCo partners with EA Sports for football gaming platform - Are its audiences big on gaming?

US: PepsiCo partners with EA Sports for football gaming platform - Are its audiences big on gaming?

Lesley Simeon - July 17th, 2023

PepsiCo has announced a multi-year global partnership with video game developer EA Sports. Three of PepsiCo’s flagship brands, Pepsi, Gatorade and Lay’s, will become founders of the upcoming football-focused EA Sports FC gaming platform. PepsiCo and EA Sports have planned a string of activations like in-game rewards and on-pack promotions that “unite the realms of football, music and gaming.”

We look at YouGov data to see how big current customers of Pepsi, Gatorade and Lay’s in the US are on gaming.

According to YouGov Profiles - which covers demographic, psychographic, attitudinal and behavioural consumer metrics - 45% of Gatorade, 43% of Lay’s and 49% of Pepsi’s current customers play video games on console video or PC. By comparison, more than half (52%) of the general US population plays video games on console video or PC. Further, 12% of Gatorade, 8% of Lay’s and 9% of Pepsi’s customers have purchased games or in-game content from EA Sports in the past 12 months.

When it comes to gamer identity, considerable proportions of Gatorade, Lay’s and Pepsi’s current customers identify as casual gamers (i.e. those who like video games but for whom it isn’t one of their top interests ).

For instance, half of Gatorade’s customers, 43% each of Lay’s and Pepsi’s customers report being casual gamers. Similarly, 15% of Gatorade’s customers, 12% of Lay’s customers and 17% of Pepsi’s customers identify as core/mid-core gamers (i.e. those who say video games are one of their top interests but they don’t take them too seriously).

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Methodology: YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data for the US is nationally representative and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race. Learn more about Profiles.

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