Esports To Be One Of U.S. Navy's Main Marketing Focuses In '20

The U.S. Navy is "punting on television advertising" and will spend "virtually all its advertising money in the digital realm," including on esports, according to Ben Werner of USNI.org. The service plans to spend nearly $33M -- 97% of its advertising budget -- on "online advertising." The Navy in February will "roll out its new focus on advertising around esports." The academy will become a "prominent sponsor of esports events and will also start fielding an all-Navy esports team pulled from the service's current pool of active duty recruiters." A Syracuse Univ. study in '18 estimated that 61% of esports viewers "are under the age of 25," the prime age for service recruitment ( USNI.org 12/18 ).