2020 has been a very eventful and troubling year, with much of the world’s commerce, industry, and sport being negatively affected by the Covid19 pandemic. Ecommerce, and in particular eSport, however, is booming, with the numbers of eSport events, earnings, pro-players, and spectators reaching an all time high.
The following list may come as no surprise to avid eSports fans, with the biggest games of 2023 maintaining the lead.
League Of Legends
This incredibly popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, released in 2009 by Riot Games, holds the present record for the highest amount of viewership in all of eSports. It is also the most-played online PC game, estimated at over 100 million active players as of 2023.
A combination of role-playing, tower-defence, and real-time strategy, with teams of five able to choose from over 150 different characters, League Of Legends has remained a favourite in eSports.
With over seven thousand professional players competing for the $9,000,000 prize pool, its average viewership has reached over 250k spectators, and holds a peak-viewership record of almost 4 million viewers.
Counter Strike: Global Offensive
A highly popular strategic team-based first-person shooter, CS:GO is another game that has been an eSport leader since it was first released in 2012 by Valve Corporation.
With its huge and dedicated fan-base, and a massive prize pool, projected to be currently around $20,000,000, recent pro league CS:GO sports betting NZ tournaments have attracted over thirteen thousand professional gamers. Its spectators have also regularly reached up to 200k at times, and peaking at over a million views during major matches.
Fortnite
Released in 2017 by Epic games as a free-to-play battle-royale, Fortnite, with its unique combination of first-person shooter and strategic building, all done with quirky cartoon-like graphics, has quickly become a hugely popular online game as well as a top eSport contender.
With a prize pool of $7, 000,000, Fortnite has attracted over four thousand professional gamers in eSports, and has garnered up to 200k spectators per match.
Dota 2
Dota 2 is another multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that continues to be popular in eSports. Developed by Valve, and released in 2013, Dota2 gained the distinction of awarding the largest prize in eSports history in 2019, a whopping $34 million.
It has since continued to attract thousands of professional players competing for the $4,000,000 prize pool, with spectators regularly reaching 100k.
Call of Duty
This action-packed first-person shooter by Activision, as part of Blizzard, is part of the one of the most popular game-franchises in history. It is also considered to be one of the longest-running leagues since it began in 2010.
It was a hard call to place this at number 5 in the list as, in many ways, it is on par with its rival, another first-person shooter by Blizzard, called Overwatch. However, due to its consistent and dedicated player-base, host of pro contenders, $6,000,000 prize pool, and regular viewership of 50k, reaching over 100k viewers during finals, it has shown to be a strong favourite, and certainly deserves it’s place.