Featured image: Microsoft Copilot
With a worldwide audience forecast to reach 318 million people, the esports industry continues to show phenomenal growth with the annual launch of new games, tens of thousands in professional player participation for tournaments, and multi-million dollar prize pools. Not forgetting sponsorships and professional players becoming household names in esports communities. Some of the games that get launched take the world by storm, with a dominance in the regional or global landscape, earning popularity in the esports communities.
Below is a list compiled of the top five biggest esports games, with their tournaments and prize pools:
Photo Credit: Microsoft Copilot
- Counter-Strike (CS, CS:GO, CS2): Counter-Strike is a multiplayer online battle arena released in 2012 and developed by Valve Corporation, in collaboration with Hidden Path Entertainment. It is a first-person shooter game and played between two teams — terrorists and counter-terrorists. The terrorists take hostages and plant bombs. The counter-terrorists have to find the hostages and diffuse the bombs. Known for its noteworthy PGL Major Stockholm tournament with 8297 tournaments held and 16641 pro players involved, it has been able to pay out a whooping $188,133,855 as prize money, making it the biggest esports game ever.
- PUBG: PUBG (PlayersUnknown Battlegrounds) is a battle royale game initially released in 2017 developed by PUBG Studios and published by Krafton. In this game a 100 players are pitted against each other where you outplay your opponents to become the lone survivor. With 950 tournaments held, pro players and a pay out of $144,835,059 prize money, it is one of the best free-to-play battle royale games made. With its large community it is certain that the game is not slowing down soon with the dedicated following it has got.
Photo Credit: Microsoft Copilot
- Dota 2: Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena game released in 2013 developed by Valve Corporation. It is a sequel to Defense of the Ancients: All-Stars, and it is played in teams of five, with each team defending their area on the map. A team wins by destroying the area called an “Ancient” within the map. It has held 1902 tournaments so far, with 4896 pro players and $348,666,595 of the prize pool paid out. The noteworthy tournament from this game is The International.
- Fortnite: Fortnite is a popular multiplayer online game by developers Epic Games. It has three different game modes, but is considered as one game. They are Save the World [involves up to 4 players fighting zombies and defending themselves and other survivors], Battle Royale [a player-vs-player where 100 players fight till the last man standing], and Creative [the sandbox where players have creative control over the game world]. It was released in 2017, and has had about 2208 tournaments, with 9314 pro players and has paid out $181,395,668 in prize money. The noteworthy tournaments held are namely Fortnite World Cup Finals and Fortnite Fall Skirmish Series.
Photo Credit: Microsoft Copilot
- League of Legends: League of Legends is a multiplayer game developed by Riot Games and has been immensely popular, and is one of the most vibrant and diverse esports titles in the world. Every year there are new viewership records set with the League of Legends Championship; showing no signs of slowing down soon. In the multiplayer online battle arena League of Legends and Dota 2 are the games up the roster, with paid out prize money totaling a whopping $109,847,830, about 2958 tournaments held, and 9466 pro players worldwide.
Conclusion
- The most successful genre in esports is multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), and if you are an esports enthusiast these are some of the esports games you would want to look out for. To be up to speed with which games are making waves in the esports industry. And Gamers Change Lives is a start to doing so!
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Written by Jeffrey Osei-Agyeman
