Leveling Up Nutrition For Gamers

About half of the world’s population plays video games in some form, according to common estimates. Consumers spend approximately $200 billion on video games annually, making it a larger market than music and film combined.

Meanwhile, there are 3,000 professional esports players, 16,000 collegiate esports players, and about 80-180,000 high school esports players in the U.S. and Canada, noted Sevanti Mehta, president of Unibar Corporation.

“While at the competitive level, the gaming segment is more niche, at the general population level, the lines start to blur a bit,” he said. “About 285 million gamers are present in North America, and 250 physically-active adults in the U.S. Therefore, there’s a sizeable audience of gamers who also happen to be physically active and health-conscious who will be receptive to nutritional support.”

“This is not a fringe audience,” said Brian Zapp, director of education and insights at Applied Food Sciences. “It is a global performance culture waiting for better nutrition opportunities. What will accelerate adoption is moving beyond ‘gamer branding’ and into benefits gamers can actually feel during play: sharper focus, faster reaction time, mental stamina, steadier energy, and staying composed under pressure.”

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Staking Claim in the Category

The markets for energy, cognitive health, and sports nutrition products are already well-established, making differentiation a challenge. Many gamers already rely on conventional energy drinks to support their alertness. While some finished product brands are finding success by catering solely to gamers, most of the industry is still painting with broader brushes in the cognitive health category.  

“The majority of the overall sports nutrition market consists of energy and hydration beverages,” said Jordan Miller, president of marketing for Everwell Health. “Esports players are likely consuming these same products for their functional benefits, even when they are not specifically positioned for gaming.”

Positioning established benefits in ways that resonate with gamers will be critical, where consumers “are seeking fast-acting products that help keep them focused and improve their performance during gameplay.”

Over a third (37%) of consumers are seeking to maintain or improve mental focus over the next 12 months, Miller said, citing FMCG Gurus. With this level of demand, brands are more focused on generalized health claims in the cognitive health space.

“This is why we have repositioned nooLVL (a complex of bonded arginine silicate and inositol) as more than just a gaming-focused solution, expanding its relevance for all generations and demographics … Even so, consumers look for products that are personalized to their individual needs, and nooLVL still offers that through its unique cognitive and mental support benefits.”

Differentiating in this space means finding ways to align established ingredients in sports nutrition and cognitive health for gaming, which is a very different use case than working out, said Zapp. “A runner might be looking for electrolytes and caffeine to power them through their activity. A gamer might opt for something that aids screen time and stimulation without the jitters for their version of stamina.”

At the same time, gamers are just as interested in general well-being as mainstream audiences. “Many gaming supplement brands are hyper-focused on improving in-game performance. However, we often forget that these individuals are not just gamers. They are students and working professionals spending extensive time in front of a screen … Proper daily nutrition and supplementation to support overall wellness is also required,” said Mehta.

Similar to sports nutrition, many gaming supplement brands are forming partnerships with competitive organizations and personalities in the gaming industry to gain notoriety. 

Gamer Supps, a leading brand in the esports category, has leaned into internet humor and irony in its branding, with products such as Chug Juice, Crusaderade, Incel Tears, Grandma’s Ashes, and more. About half of the products in its portfolio are co-developed with Twitch streamers, YouTubers, and other content creators who participate in the development process and have equity in the product. This approach has much less overhead than sponsoring an entire esports team.

Game-inspired flavors are another common approach. G Fuel markets products with a Nuka Cola flavor inspired by the Fallout Series, a Compound V flavor co-branded with the superhero satire “The Boys,” and Miami Nights, which was inspired by Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Esports teams are starting to adopt nutrition plans into their training regimens; in-game usage of supplements during competitions offers significant branding potential. Thorne partnered with Team Liquid in 2022 as its official health and wellness sponsor, offering its services in the company’s protocol for athletes which included a case study in players.

Last year, the supplement brand Ghost partnered with the gaming organization XSET, becoming a partner for supplements and beverages, a jersey sponsor, and a sponsor of future events.

G Fuel has had some of the longest-running partnerships with gaming organizations which include co-branded supplement flavors; teams have included FaZe Clan, Luminosity Gaming, and Enthusiast Gaming. G Fuel also collaborates with Richard Tyler Blevins (Ninja), a gamer and Twitch streamer. 

The brand Advanced has also formed a number of ingredient-led partnerships that are science-driven, such as one with Everwell Health’s nooLVL, around which it built one of its core formulas. The company also partnered with Tracker Network, a data/analytics platform focused on player stats, performance analytics, and individual player skill tracking.

Zapp noted that gamers are supplement-savvy, and legacy brands effective at communicating science will stand out. “In a category full of hype, [gamers] have a good radar for spammy claims. So disciplined science can become the differentiator. The brands that win will not just look like gamer brands. They will prove they understand how gamers perform and break scientific outcomes into language that gamers can appreciate.”

Unique Health Concerns

The gaming supplements category is dominated by formulas promising sustained, jitter-free energy. Gamers want focus and energy without the physiological effects from high caffeine doses. It’s about “staying locked in, recovering attention quickly, staying positive and socially energized, keeping composure and focus under stress, and preserving eye health through excessive screen time,” Zapp said.

Augmenting the effects of caffeine is a popular strategy, either by pairing it with synergistic ingredients like L-theanine, offering more moderate doses, or using sustained-release caffeine. This bodes well for nootropic sources of caffeine, Zapp noted.

AFS’ AmaTea Max is a guayusa extract that contains both caffeine and the nootropic compounds found within the tea. Adaptogens and more focus-forward botanicals and mushrooms also stand out, such as lion’s mane, ginseng, or cordyceps, which can support an adaptogenic stamina and sustained performance narrative, contrary to caffeine.

Eye strain is prevalent for gamers and working professionals alike, noted Mehta. A recent study among college students found that 4 or more hours of PC gaming was associated with increased dry eye disease symptoms. “Recognizing this concern, gamers have even developed clocks to remind them to blink.” Ingredients specifically tested for digital eye strain can be well-suited for formulas tailored for prolonged gaming sessions, Mehta said.

Emerging eye health tests that provide relevant indications for gamers include the Standardized Patient Evaluation of Eye Dryness (SPEED), ocular surface disease index (OSDI), Snellen Visual Acuity Test, Tear Osmolarity, Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) levels, and Unanesthetized Schirmer Test.

“Beyond dry eye, gamers also commonly experience symptoms such as eye strain, headaches, and blurred vision,” warranting the use of ingredients to target dry eye symptoms, blue light protection, intraocular pressure, and other effects of digital eye strain, said Mehta.

Clinical Substantiation

Very few nutrition studies have evaluated a population defined as gamers. Even fewer of these studies have examined measures of gaming performance, where every
 millisecond counts.

A review published in JISSN at the end of last year identified 13 randomized, controlled trials involving 466 professional esports athletes, all of whom were tested on cognitive, psychological, and gaming aspects. Across 18 supplement protocols, caffeine was the most well-studied, appearing in 14 interventions. Other ingredients directly tested in gamers included nooLVL, GABA, and microalgae extracts. The trials focused on: domains like executive function and attention, which are closely linked to gaming; improvements in mood manifested as increased vitality and reduced fatigue/negative emotions; and direct improvements in gaming performance, such as shooting scores, accuracy, and reduced reaction times.

A clinical study published in Cureus in 2023 found that caffeine often works especially well when stacked with other natural stimulants. A formula that combined caffeine with TeaCrine, a branded theacrine ingredient, and Dynamine, a branded methylliberine, was shown to improve shooting performance in a first-person shooter training game called Aimlab, with improvements in reflex shot standard, speed, and precision, across 49 participants.

The formula (CTD) “assists with speed-accuracy tradeoffs where caffeine-only can lead to erratic play; thus, CTD may be particularly beneficial for shooting precision,” the authors reported. Based on EEG readings, “CTD exhibited lower alpha power, suggesting increased cognitive flexibility and arousal and higher theta power, suggesting greater cognitive control and decision-making under pressure.”

nooLVL was among the first ingredients to be tested directly in gamers in clinical studies. “Double-blind, placebo-controlled studies conducted in 2019 and 2021 demonstrated fast-acting cognitive benefits, including improvements in accuracy, energy levels, and working memory. A third open-label study in 2022 expanded research into healthy adults, not within the gaming population, showing broader evidence of its cognitive benefits,” said Miller.

Substantiation always starts with traditional cognitive batteries, but these standardized, validated measurements still only represent half the story for gamers, Zapp said.

“In the University of Memphis study on AmaTea Max (caffeinated guayusa extract), active gamers played Fortnite over four 1-hour stints, with traditional cognitive testing in between. The researchers looked at both established measures and gaming-specific outcomes, including reaction time, mood, subjective feelings, mental fatigue, AX-CPT performance, game wins, and even kills per match. … It moves the narrative beyond whether an ingredient makes someone alert at a desk and tests whether it helps them stay sharp in the chaos of the match.”

While those who took synthetic caffeine reported jittery feelings after an hour, AmaTea Max also showed no increase in jitters after an hour; it was superior to caffeine in its effects on reaction time, mental fatigue, vigor, and gaming scores, Zapp noted. “This kind of study gives brands a much stronger story than simply saying ‘supports focus.’”

Formulation Trends

In a recent market report, G Fuel noted that gamers particularly enjoy partaking in the ritual of scooping and shaking powders. “At $0.89 per serving versus $2.79-$2.99 for cans, the math makes sense. But cost isn’t why powder wins, control is. Functional energy drinks in powder form let you adjust strength, mix flavors, and time your energy precisely.”

Further, many gamers engage in late-night sessions; zero-caffeine options are likely to fail in the conventional energy drinks channel, but can do well in powder formats for at-home use. While convenience stores will always rely on ready-to-drink cans, subscription sales for home users will grow the powder segment. G Fuel projected there will soon be a 60/40 split between powders and cans in the overall energy category. 

“Beverages are increasingly popular for gamers to sip on during gameplay because they are easy to use without interruption,” noted Miller. Everwell Health formulated a soluble version of nooLVL, suitable for ready-to-drink beverages, with its proprietary Cryopure technology.

While gamers may be more likely to opt for a ready-to-mix format than other consumers, they still have the same, if not higher, expectations for sensory performance.

Gamers “will prefer products without chalky grit, no distracting flavor fatigue, no overly sticky residue, and no energy that feels too edgy when precision matters. RTDs, shots, stick packs, capsules, and gummies can all work, but the product has to feel dialed in for that audience,” noted Zapp. 

Flavors in this space tend to be bold. “When you look at brands winning in this space, it is almost a full-blown sensory overload. From colorful, gamified packaging to bold citrus and fruit flavors, it is typically a very visceral experience,” which helps to convey the expectations that a product can offer immediate focus and performance benefits, said Zapp.

Winning brands in this niche “know their target audience isn’t just gaming all the time. They are students, early tech adopters, and gym-goers who view gaming as part of their overall lifestyle. This has allowed them to stand out with a broad spectrum of gamers, beyond just the hardcore esports athletes,” Mehta said.