Most Popular Esports Games Around the World

The new and emerging industry of professional esports gaming is one of the hottest sporting industries we’ve seen in recent decades. While esports initially struggled to gain a bit of traction and acceptance in the sporting community, things are now very different in 2020. The entire eSports industry has transformed into a multi-billion network, with huge competitions, enormous sponsorships, amazing teams, and interest on a global scale. 

All of this is very exciting indeed, especially if you have an interest in eSports gaming already. However, for this article, we will be looking at the underlying element that drives the entire eSports industry – the games themselves. In 2020, the games have just gotten better and better, yet there are some that are leading the pack.

Without wasting any more time, let’s look deeper into these games and see what makes them so special. 

League of Legends

League of Legends is the crown jewel of Riot Games’ development, and it first came out back in 2009. With more than a decade of play now, this game has just obliterated every other game in the esports market concerning popularity, for example, it is the most-watched eSport in Canada. prize money, and global interest. To summarize just how popular this game is, at the time of writing, there are more than 100 million players globally, many of these playing on a professional level too. While that is absolutely fantastic from a participation perspective, it gets even better from a viewer’s perspective.

If we take 2019 as a prime example, the League of Legends World finals attracted 3.9 million viewers via their respective live streaming channels. This is simply staggering, and it firmly cements League of Legends’ place at the top of the esports market. 

If you’ve never played or watched this game before, you are in for a treat. It is a multiplayer game that consists of 5 players on each team, and basically, your objective is to work together and defeat the opponents ‘Nexus’ before they get yours. That’s what makes it so fun! 

Fortnite

Fortnite is much more recent than League of Legends, as it first emerged onto the scene in 2017. As it happens, Fortnite rivals League of Legends in terms of global popularity, with millions of players enjoying all that this game has to offer from all corners of the globe. One of the main attractions of this game is that it is incredibly flexible and expansive. You can simply wander around the enormous map and pick up materials as you go, meaning that you can basically go on indefinitely. This is different from other games of a similar layout and style to Fortnite.

Concerning professional eSports participation for Fortnite, the statistics are again very impressive. At the Fortnite World Cup in 2019, there were more than 2 million viewers who tuned in to watch, and throughout the year, a regular Fortnite event attracted between 150-200 thousand viewers. Despite the economic unrest in 2020, there has still been almost $7,000,000 paid out in esports prize money for this game too, which just proves the popularity of Fortnite yet again. 

Dota 2

Ever since 2013, Dota 2 has been entertaining eSports gamers like never before. This MOBA style game (multiplayer online battle arena) has been dominating the world of eSports recently, as seen with the professional Dota 2 League that is played all over the league. The key event for Dota 2 each year is known as ‘The International’, and the prize money for this event was $34,000,000 in 2019. This is rather impressive indeed, and it puts Dota 2 on the same level as some of the best games in the world.

In 2020, there has been $4,000,000 in prize money paid out to Dota 2 participants, which is quite large compared to other games.

If you’re wondering how this game actually works, we’ve got some more exciting news for you. Since this is a multiplayer game, you will work with your buddies to try and destroy the other team’s defenses, referred to as ‘The Ancient’. Each assigned character has a special ability that you can make use of too, so it’s a great tactical, as well as a technical game. 

Final thoughts

More and more games are constantly hitting the eSports market in 2020, yet the games mentioned in this post have stood the test of time. We are sure that the popularity of these games will fluctuate as new and updated versions are released, but for now, these really are the best of the bunch.

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