8 Biggest Esports Tournaments In The World

Esports is considered to be a sort of competitive sport that makes use of video games. These games were first hosted in 1972 by the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab (Los Altos, California) and since then, they have become an obsession among teenagers and adults alike.

Esports has now reached international levels and have completely changed the way we consume and create competitive sports. It has become a multi-billion-dollar company and continues to grow to this day.

Esports is just like any other game we watch in stadiums. The only difference here is that these sports are enjoyed while you sit in the comfort of your home and log in online with thousands of other fans. You can engage in tough competitions with newbies as well as professional players. In fact, the players and athletes here are offered yearly contracts and several endorsement deals!

8. Rocket League

Date: December 2019
Location: Madrid
Viewers Online: 206,000
Prize Pool: $350,000

The Rocket League is an amazing game and has been developed by Psyonix (soccer with cars). This game involves a lot of tough competition and outmaneuvering opponents.

This is a very technical game where players work together in their respective teams to advance the ball down and score goals in the opponent’s nets. The rocket league has now become a state-sanctioned esport.

The game is played like a traditional soccer game, the only difference is that it is played online. The clock keeps ticking and during that time, the team that scores the maximum number of goals wins the game. In case of a tie, the team plays over time and then the winner is decided.

Some of the best players and teams from Europe, South and North America and Oceania take part in the Rocket League Championship Series in the hope that they might win the $1,000,000 prize and become world champions. However, for that huge amount, the teams have to prove their mettle over the course of several other tournaments in their local regions.

Did You Know?

Many colleges and universities with esports programs keep the rocket league as their core title. There are 200 such universities and colleges and they offer $10 million in scholarships.

7. Fortnite

Date: 2019
Location: Flushing, New York
Viewers Online: 2.3 million
Prize Pool: $7,000,000

Powered by Epic games, this is by far the most popular game in the whole royal battle genre. The data of esports tournaments and broadcasts has confirmed that this game ended up earning $2.4 billion of revenue in 2016 alone and by doing this, this game has managed to transform gaming into the mainstream. Not many games have been able to do this.

Back in 2017, Fortnite would go by the name PvE game. During the 2019 world championship, the developer of this game launched two modes and offered $30 million. A 17-year-old player named Bugha won the solo mode and not only won the gold medal but also $3 million.

Creating a second record in the esports industry, this game also raked in humongous views, ie, 2 million 334 thousand. In 2020, this gamesent over invites to over 600 players in every region with award money of $2 million altogether.

Did You Know?

Of the 250 million registered players across the world, 40 million took part in online competitions for an opportunity to come to New York. In the end, 200 finalists were selected from 34 different countries.

6. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Date: 2019
Location: Sweden
Viewers Online: 1.2 million
Prize Pool: $20,000,000

Also known as CS:GO esports tournaments, these games are sponsored by Valve, who is the game’s developer. The majors of this game took place in Sweden in 2013.

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive game was hosted by DreamHack and the huge pool prize included $250,000. Based on previous tournament results, six teams were directly invited, while another four teams came from direct qualifiers.

This is an open tournament system first came into existence in 1999 and since then, it has only become popular among people. The main tourney is held twice each year. Valve got hold of the fan modification and released the first game named counter strike in 2000.

The game’s developer, Valve, entered into a partnership with various independent tournament organizers, which eventually led to the creation of this series.

5. League of Legends World Championship

Date: 10/11/15 – 31/10/15
Location: Paris, London, Brussels, and Berlin
Viewers Online: 36,000,000
Prize Pool: $2,130,000

Also known as Worlds, the League of Legends World Championship takes place yearly. This tournament includes the top-performing teams from each region and all these teams come together to battle for the Summoner’s Cup and become the world champions.

The league has gained a lot of popularity and success and has become one of the most-watched video games in the world. This league is watched by 36,000,000 people and has a total of 386,000,000 hours watched. 

Due to the popularity of this game, it is now seen as a potential Olympics event. In fact, it is already being included as a medal event in the 2022 Asian Games.

Did You Know?

The tournament keeps changing its venues each year across different countries and currently, South Korea’s T1 holds the maximum number of wins, ie, three.

4. CFS World Championship

Date: 30/11/17 – 03/12/17
Location: Xi’an
Viewers Online: 37,000,000
Prize Pool: $850,000

With a total of 650 million players worldwide and 8 million concurrent players, the Crossfire is played in over 80 countries worldwide. It is the global number one FPS and since its launch in 2013, it is hosted every year.

This league has garnered 37,000,000 viewers and has a total of 6,537,068 hours watched. In 2017, the viewership of this league increased about 50% and set the viewership record. The league was broadcast live in six different languages (English, Chinese, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Russian) on YouTube, Twitch TV, Facebook, and other social media platforms.

Did You Know?

The broadcast of this league was expanded to six major sports channels in China which helped a lot in increasing the viewership of the game. As much as 44% of the views were increased by doing so.

3. League of Legends World Championship

Date: 29/09/16 – 29/10/16
Location: San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles
Viewers Online: 43,000,000
Prize Pool: $5,070,000

The League of Legends World Championship has a total of 43,000,000 viewers and 370,000,000 hours watched. When compared with the 2015 stats, there has been a difference of 9,000,000 viewers, which is an incredible jump.

With 16 teams that were eyeing the $5,070,000 prize pool, this league toured the United States in 2016. All these teams were playing on the 6.18 version of the game with great enthusiasm and passion.

All of the tournaments of this league take place at well-established stadiums like the Madison Square Garden in New York, Staples Center in Los Angeles, The Chicago Theatre in the Windy City and the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. At all these stadiums, as many as 50,000 people gather to watch the games.

Did You Know?

The peak concurrent viewership of this league was around 14,700,000 with the overall peak at 28,263,260 views.

2. Intel Extreme Masters Katowice

Date: 03/03/17 – 05/03/17
Location: Katowice, Poland
Viewers Online: 46,000,000
Prize Pool: $250,000

This league surpassed number 3 league and garnered as many as 46,000,000 viewers and accumulated a total of 19,744,073 hours watched. The league was sponsored by Intel and won the silver medal for being the largest event in the history of esports.

The Katowice league was held at the Spodak Arena which was attended by 173,000 spectators. 12 teams took part in the event for which the prize pool was $250,000. The league was not only fun for the players but also for the viewers. With bright lights in the arena, the fun for everyone watching doubled.

Did You Know?

444,339 peak Twitch viewers and 724,317 overall peak viewers also got to admire the latest and greatest of Intel.

1. LoL Mid-Season Invitational

Date: 03/05/18 – 20/05/18
Location: Adlershof and Paris
Viewers Online: 60,000,000
Prize Pool: $1,370,520

The LoL Mid-Season Invitational is the biggest esports tournament in the world. With 60,000,000 unique viewers, this event alone yielded 2,077,897,606 of total hours watched. At the Riot European Studios in Germany and at Le Zenith in Paris, 14 teams played against each other on the 8.8 version of the game.

The league garnered 448,451 peak Twitch viewers, 426,296 peak Youtube viewers, and a concurrent viewership of 24,590,504. It is said that at all the places internet was available, someone or the other was watching the event. Such was its reach and excitement. All these teams were contesting for a prize pool of $1,370,520 and in the end, the RNG team topped and won the tournament.

Did You Know?

People said that the prize pool for such a massive league was quite underwhelming.