As the momentum of Esports continues to snowball, Quick Serve Restaurants (QSR) are increasingly taking a bite of the action.

More than 30 QSR brands–each with nearly 3 sponsorship deals on average within Esports–currently buy sponsorship/media within Esports, while 22% have 5 or more. The top-five brands ranked by number of deals are:

• McDonald’s

• KFC

• Chipotle

• Jack-in-the-Box

• Subway

McDonald’s also ranks No. 1 in sponsorship growth, with more than 10 new deals with Esports properties, mainly teams and leagues, over the last 12 months. In June, multinational Esports organization Gen.G and McDonald's renewed their McDonald's Crew League partnership, designed to recruit and retain employees through gaming.

Other recent link-ups include Chipotle’s April collaboration with gaming influencer Karl Jacobs, to promote the launch of its new pollo asado chicken menu item with a limited-time “Karl Jacobs Burrito.”  Papa John’s partnered with Esports tournament operator Beyond the Summit (BTS) in May to launch a Super Smash Bros-centered community campaign.

QSR brands and Esports organizations utilize social media posts in more than 85% of deals. Out of the top-five emerging assets, Twitter reigns supreme: images, videos, and text posts on the channel take the first, fourth, and fifth spots, respectively.

In total, there are currently 1,100-plus branded posts across more than 130 deals; the most-engaged post, at more than 600K followers, was between Jacobs and Chipotle. Engagement totals more than 3.5 million across all social posts, with the average engagement per deal just north of 28K.