What Is The Most Popular Esport?
It’s no doubt that the last decade has seen the meteoric rise of esports at large. Of course, 2020 might have stunted its real-world progress, but the world of competitive gaming has taken a serious upshot in every gaming genre. But, as fans pile into stadiums across the world to support their favourite team and rep jerseys everywhere, the question remains - what’s the most popular esport in the world?
Which Esports Are The Most Popular?
Of course, esports is a lucrative business, but they’re nothing without the fans who watch them. They’re defined by their fans, and their successes are a result of their dedication to their favourite teams. And these fans put in a lot of watch hours.
Click to enlargeA report by ESCharts has collated data on the esports categories with the most watch-hours in 2020, and the results are of course, in favour of the MOBAs once again. The third most-watched esport last year was for Dota 2, gathering over 253 million hours of watch time. In second place is CS:GO with over 354 million hours watched, and tearing out ahead with an immense lead is League of Legends, gathering 58,847,076 hours watched over the year period. These collated hours are made up of only 12,000 hours of air time, and at one point had a concurrent viewer count of 3,882,252. The MOBA’s popularity is undeniable and was a dominating force of the esports world last year.
Which Esports Games Have The Highest Prize Pools?
When it comes to esports, there’s an awful lot of money in circulation. Whether it be from merch sales, ticket fees, sponsorships, or athlete hire, the sporting subdivision is an invariable money mill. So of course, one of the best ways to offset such wealth is to funnel it into prize pools to incentivise the highest-performing teams. And man, there are some hefty prize pools.
According to a report by The Esports Observer, in 2020 alone, the highest esports prize pools totalled $14.75 Million, only for tournaments of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). It’s tailed by the prize pools for the two massive MOBAs, Dota 2 and League of Legends with $8.87M and $8M respectively.
Click to enlargeLoL might be the current reigning champ, but other leagues are on their way up. Esports just continue to grow and grow, and don’t show any signs of slowing down. And who knows, maybe 2021 will see the end of League’s reign.
Images via Valve | Riot Games
